Course Description

This course examines the founding and evolution of OpenAI as an ethics case study in mission drift. It opens with the origins of artificial intelligence at the 1956 Dartmouth Summer Research Project and the two competing definitions of intelligence that still shape AI safety debates, then traces how a company founded as a non-profit, expressly to keep advanced AI out of any single corporation's hands, became a commercial enterprise racing its competitors to market.

Participants follow the decisions that produced that transformation: the compute problem that forced a change in structure, the self-interest threat created by placing a for-profit branch inside a non-profit, the charter revisions that preceded that move, the safety evaluations that were compressed or skipped, and the governance breakdown that led a board to remove and then reinstate its chief executive in five days.

For CPAs, finance professionals, and company leaders, the case offers a detailed look at how commercial pressure erodes stated ethical commitments over time, why a written charter is not a safeguard on its own, and how an ethical framework such as the IESBA Code is designed to guard against mission drift, conflicts of interest, and failures of candor with those charged with governance.

Prerequisites: None. This course has no prerequisites and requires no advanced preparation.

Learning Objectives

Upon completing the course, the participant will be able to:

  1. Distinguish between the two competing definitions of intelligence that emerged in early AI research.
  2. Recognize how those competing definitions continue to shape AI safety and ethics debates today.
  3. Identify the limitations of Symbolic AI that led the research community to abandon it.
  4. Differentiate connectionism from Symbolic AI as an approach to building machine intelligence.
  5. Identify the ethical convictions that motivated OpenAI’s founding as a non-profit.
  6. Identify the commitments OpenAI placed on public record in its 2015 founding letter.
  7. Recognize the funding and leadership pressures that produced OpenAI’s capped-profit structure.
  8. Evaluate the self-interest threat created by OpenAI’s transition toward a for-profit structure.
  9. Identify the changes made to OpenAI’s charter following that transition.
  10. Assess the ethical significance of OpenAI’s decision to withhold GPT-2 on safety grounds against its later release of ChatGPT.
  11. Identify the governance failures that led OpenAI’s board to remove Sam Altman in November 2023.
  12. Evaluate how an ethical framework such as the IESBA Code guards against organizational mission drift.

Instructors

Garth Sheriff, CPA (Illinois), CPA (Canada), CFE, CIA, CGMA, and Advanced Artificial Intelligence in Audit (AAIA), is Founder and Chief Learning Officer of Sheriff Consulting, a NASBA-approved provider of QAS Self-Study and on-demand CPD in artificial intelligence, fraud, and professional ethics. His cinematic, story-driven programs transform real-world events, from OpenAI, FTX, and Boeing to the origin of ChatGPT, into practical lessons on risk and professional judgment. Garth also holds the ISACA Advanced in AI Audit (AAIA) certification, reflecting his specialized expertise in AI governance and oversight. He has also acted in various stage and film productions and is a graduate of improvisation at The Second City and a member of ACTRA (the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists).

Course Information

Course Title: Professional Ethics: The OpenAI Story

Estimated Total CPD: 2.0

Field(s) of Study: Behavioral Ethics

Delivery Method: Self-Study

Program Level: Basic

Prerequisites/Advanced Preparation: None

Enrollment Period/Expiration Date: One year from date of purchase

Date of Last Program Review/Update: September 29, 2026

Refund Policy/Complaint Resolution Policy: Our refund, program cancellation, complaint resolution, record retention, and course update policies are published on our Administrative Policies page.

Assessment Requirements:

To earn CPD credit, participants must pass the final assessment by answering at least 2 of 3 questions correctly.

Participants who do not achieve the required passing grade may retake the assessment as many times as needed within the one-year enrollment period.

Course curriculum

    1. Instructions for Self Study

    2. Course Overview

    3. Glossary and Index of Key Terms

    1. The Holy Grail of AI

      FREE PREVIEW

    2. Review Questions

      FREE PREVIEW

    1. The First Order of AI

    2. Review Questions

    1. The Rise of Connectionism

    2. Review Questions

    1. Elon Musk and Sam Altman Team Up

    2. Review Questions

    1. If You Build It They Will Come

    2. Review Questions

About this course

  • $175.00
  • 25 lessons
  • 2 hours of video content

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Course Trailer