Which brings us to the interesting case of OpenAI, a company born in virtue that has become great by selling its soul. The pattern has been unmistakable: whenever user safety and growth come into conflict, growth wins. Their original sin was optimizing user engagement, a euphemism for maximizing time used, return visits, and, ultimately, revenue. Five companies (Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, Google/Alphabet, and Amazon) constitute 30 percent of the entire wealth of the S&P 500. What OpenAI did when CHATGPT users lost touch with reality.

Source: New York Times December 30, 2025 15:14 UTC