[ryanmercer]

From my understanding of OpenAI they plan to be open with their research but not necessarily share code.

Sure, anything they patent gives a foreign government a starting point and the U.S. government can use secrecy orders to prevent patents from being public or even flat out locking them down via things like the Invention Secrecy Act but I think OpenAI, and similar initiatives, will still considerably benefit mankind when they actually start to develop 'AI' with practical applications and certainly if they develop AGI.

For example with OpenAI this work they're doing with learning dexterity with the robotic hands could drastically assist amputees in the very near future by learning quickly from input from the user to make considerably more functional artificial limbs.