Dates and location
Pricing
Hours
Dates and location
Pricing
Hours
Description
OpenAI’s evolution from a non-profit organization to a commercial enterprise provides a timely case study in ethics, governance, and organizational accountability. This course examines how commercial pressure, rapid growth, competing priorities, and conflicts of interest can challenge an organization’s stated values and influence decision-making.
Participants explore key moments in OpenAI’s development, including changes to its organizational structure and commitments, AI safety decisions, and the governance breakdown that resulted in the removal and subsequent reinstatement of its chief executive.
For CPAs, finance professionals, and business leaders, the course offers practical insights into ethical decision-making, governance oversight, conflicts of interest, and accountability. It also explores how organizations can use ethical frameworks to help safeguard their mission and maintain trust when business pressures intensify.
Key Takeaways
Upon completing the course, the participant will be able to:
- Identify the origins of the term artificial intelligence, the two competing definitions of intelligence that emerged in early AI research, and the AGI benchmark, and recognize how those competing definitions continue to shape AI safety and ethics debates today.
- Explain how Symbolic AI was designed to work and analyze the four limitations that caused the AI research community to lose confidence in it.
- Describe how connectionism differs from Symbolic AI and identify the breakthroughs that ended the AI winter and made deep learning the dominant approach.
- Recognize the technical milestones, the personal rivalry, and the ethical convictions that together led Elon Musk and Sam Altman to found OpenAI as a non-profit positioned against Google.
- Explain why OpenAI’s founders chose an open, non-profit structure and identify the commitments the 2015 founding letter placed on record.
- Analyze how funding pressure and a leadership vacuum led to Elon Musk’s departure and to the creation of OpenAI’s capped-profit structure.
- Evaluate the self-interest threat created by OpenAI’s move to a for-profit structure and identify the specific changes made to the company’s charter.
- Explain what a large language model does and analyze OpenAI’s decision to withhold GPT-2 on safety grounds, the Microsoft partnership that funded what followed, and the release of ChatGPT without comparable safety evaluation.
- Identify the safety principles at stake inside OpenAI and the governance failures that led its board to remove Sam Altman in November 2023.
- Evaluate the five days that reversed the board’s decision and what OpenAI’s evolution demonstrates about mission drift, and apply the role of an ethical framework such as the IESBA Code in guarding against it.
Who Will Benefit
CPAs, finance professionals, business leaders, and governance, risk and compliance professionals interested in AI ethics, organizational decision-making, and responsible AI oversight.
Disclaimer
The views expressed in the course are non-authoritative and have not been formally endorsed by CPA Ontario and do not reflect the views of CPA Ontario. The information included in the course if for general information purposes only.
CPA Ontario, the presenters and the authors do not accept any responsibility or liability that might occur directly or indirectly as a consequence of the use or application of or reliance on this material.
How to Access the Course
To access your course, visit the CPA Ontario Blackboard site and sign in using the same username and password used for the Registration Portal. You can also access your course through the Blackboard Learn app (iOS or Android).
Important: Course access begins on the date of purchase and remains available for the Access Time specified for the course under Dates and Location. Please review the access time before purchasing. Note that it may take up to 15 minutes after registration for the course to appear in Blackboard.
Registration, cancellation, withdrawal, and other CPA Ontario PD policies can be found here.
Speaker(s)
Garth Sheriff, CPA, CA, CPA (Illinois), CIA, CGMA, MAcc, is the founder of Sheriff Consulting. Sheriff Consulting provides continuing professional education (CPE) courses in leadership, communication, and assurance. Garth has worked as an assurance professional and learning provider for over 20 years. Garth has also acted in various stage and film productions. He is a graduate in improvisation from The Second City and a member of ACTRA (the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists).