June

1 events

Editors' summary

OpenAI gets something to sell, and starts earning from it

On 11 June, OpenAI launched its first commercial product, the OpenAI API: send text, get the continuation, across models including GPT-3. Access was by invitation at first, granted while the uses were checked.

It was a step from an organisation that publishes papers to one that earns from being used. Moving away from the founding pledge to share research openly was argued over inside and out.

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Record1 events

11
ModelOpenAI
OpenAI launches its API, the company's first commercial product
OpenAI released its first commercial product: an API launched in private beta. Rather than targeting a single use case, it offered a general-purpose "text in, text out" interface serving models from the GPT-3 family via a waitlist. OpenAI also stated it would terminate access for obviously harmful uses such as harassment and spam. The weights were not distributed; the model was reachable only through the API — a considerable departure at the time from OpenAI's earlier practice of releasing research as papers and code.

↑ 2020

OpenAI launches its API, the company's first commercial product