[mr_luc]

I don't think it has to be - I think they're thinking about how to turn that research into money in a healthy way, so as to keep doing relevant work in a super capital-intensive area and maintain their ability to exert some control over how AI is used, and they quite rightly assume that they can't both do the research and invent all of the killer apps at the same time.

It's interesting if you compare it to Bell or Xerox, right? The research lab's hackers helping make funding decisions about startups that use their secret sauce might seem funny historically, though maybe it would have been more effective.

(In practice, though, as HN is well aware, OpenAI isn't just some research lab; serial entrepreneurs who are connected with the most successful incubator ever, etc).