AI pioneer now fears his work enabled corporate control of language models

Jeremy Howard’s pioneering work in natural language processing helped create the foundation for today’s generative AI revolution, yet he now views this achievement with growing concern. As one of the creators of technology that evolved into ChatGPT, the Melbourne-born data scientist and entrepreneur watches with alarm as powerful AI systems concentrate under corporate control, raising fundamental questions about who will shape and benefit from these world-changing tools. His journey illuminates the tension between AI’s democratizing potential and the reality of increasing consolidation in the hands of a few dominant tech companies.

The breakthrough: Jeremy Howard helped solve one of AI’s greatest challenges by teaching machines to process natural language, ultimately enabling systems to read and write like humans.

• Working from his San Francisco couch in 2017, Howard experimented with natural language processing (NLP) techniques that would eventually contribute to tools like ChatGPT.
• His work focused on giving AI systems access to the vast repository of human knowledge recorded in text, a capability that has now become reality with large language models (LLMs).
• Just five years after his innovations, ChatGPT emerged as a public demonstration of how AI could generate human-like text, representing a massive acceleration in the field’s development.

Why this matters: The rapid development of language AI has concentrated unprecedented power in the hands of a few technology companies, contradicting the democratizing vision of early AI pioneers.

• Howard and his wife Rachel Thomas founded fast.ai specifically to democratize machine learning knowledge and make these powerful tools accessible to more people.
• Instead of broad access, Howard now watches with concern as a small number of corporations gain increasing control over transformative AI technology.
• “It’s looking like we might have failed,” Howard admits, suggesting the outcome has been worse than originally feared.

The evolution: OpenAI’s transformation from a non-profit entity to a company closely aligned with Microsoft exemplifies the shift in AI development toward corporate control.

• The organization that created ChatGPT began with more open, democratically-minded principles before evolving into a company with deep commercial ties.
• This trajectory mirrors broader industry patterns where promising AI research becomes consolidated under large tech companies with vast computational resources.
• As language models grow increasingly powerful, the resources required to develop them have made it difficult for smaller, independent researchers to compete.

The implications: Howard’s journey from AI innovator to concerned observer highlights the challenge of ensuring transformative technologies serve humanity broadly rather than reinforcing existing power structures.

• His experience suggests that even well-intentioned technologists may find their innovations directed toward outcomes they didn’t envision or support.
• The concentration of AI capabilities raises significant questions about who will control these systems and how their benefits will be distributed.
• Howard’s self-described “failure” points to the difficulty of maintaining democratic principles in technology development amid powerful commercial incentives.