Brand in 2023: OpenAI changes the game for tech brands
I'm launching The Brand Book with my top three predictions for the upcoming year in brand. Part 1: OpenAI ushers in a new era of branding in the tech industry
Between crypto’s spectacular crash and the tech industry’s never-ending layoffs, the techno-optimist promise of Silicon Valley is all but shattered.
Perhaps the only thing keeping that promise intact is the astonishing ascent of AI—a development that, for better or worse, feels reminiscent of tech’s good old days.
If tech companies intend to regain public trust and goodwill, brand will have to be a part of it. However, they can no longer position themselves as inherently anti-establishment, worker-friendly, or egalitarian—at least not with a straight face. Instead, they’ll have to appeal to increasingly savvy and disillusioned audiences with self-awareness, humility, and transparency.
OpenAI goes against the grain
OpenAI’s approach is one to watch. While their mission statement echoes the eye roll-inducing grandiosity of tech’s early days, their charter—which they wrote after refining their strategy for two years—reads more like a legally-binding document than a stirring manifesto. For instance:
Our primary fiduciary duty is to humanity. We anticipate needing to marshal substantial resources to fulfill our mission, but will always diligently act to minimize conflicts of interest among our employees and stakeholders that could compromise broad benefit.
It sure is…specific. And you know what? It’s also kind of refreshing. OpenAI clearly understands the great power and responsibility that comes with ushering in a new era of technological advancement. After almost 20 years of moving fast and breaking things, their ostensibly measured approach feels radical in its own right.
Also notable is OpenAI’s approach to DE&I. A somewhat run-of-the-mill statement belies a concerted effort to, at the very least, examine the social impact of their technology and publicly disclose its potential harm to underrepresented groups. They’re also transparent about their interview and hiring process, a practice that could help diversify candidate pools.
A fresh take on tech branding
OpenAI’s strategic approach isn’t the only way they’re breaking the traditional tech mold. Despite being a quintessential software company, OpenAI avoids tech-brand tropes like gratuitous dark mode, goofy naming, and monospace fonts (bonus points if they’re animated). The design is instead sophisticated, yet approachable, with sparse layouts, a modern and tech-inspired serif, and enough color contrast for my astigmatism-afflicted eyes to process. Simple, smart interactivity demonstrates their products’ capabilities; otherwise, the design stays out of the way and lets the work speaks for itself.
Naturally, AI-generated art accompanies some of OpenAI’s blog posts. Other posts feature simple, well-drawn infographics that I’m sure make sense to people much smarter than me. A recruiting video is the only example of non-illustrated art, at least as far as I can tell. The video is characteristically understated but nicely shot, featuring real employees talking about their experiences at the company.
Beyond that, there isn’t much in the way of a visual identity. I’m curious to see whether the company will ramp up branding efforts when they take on more definitively commercial pursuits. With openings for product, monetization, and go-to-market roles, their job board suggests this transition is well underway.
The elephant in the room: Will AI take our jobs?
It’s impossible to talk about OpenIA’s branding without talking about its implications on the discipline itself. DALL·E 2, for instance, raises ethical questions around copyright and intellectual property, not to mention bias and (mis)representation. While AI technologists have an unequivocal responsibility to combat these issues, the problems exacerbated by AI are far from new: Designers know better than anyone that there’s no such thing as an original idea, and it’s not like the design industry is a paragon of diversity.
Regardless, competitors won’t let the likes of DALL·E 2 progress unchallenged for long. As of last month, Getty Images is suing Stability AI for allegedly scraping its images to train its software. Adobe is taking a less litigious approach and instead closely monitoring AI-generated images submitted to its stock library.
As far as our jobs as brand builders go, I’m not terribly concerned AI will render us obsolete—at least not before I retire to the Hudson Valley to run an antique shop (for example). From my perspective, AI-generated art still has a way to go before it stops looking like the stuff of nightmares. Even above-average robot art has an uncanny-valley vibe to it; it will take a discerning eye and some practice to regularly generate professionally passable images.
That’s all to say: As AI tech progresses, so will our expectations for it. So long as humans are the arbiters of quality work, we will be able to comfortably coexist alongside AI.
A new paradigm for tech brands
What’s promising about all of this is that, unlike tech brands before it, OpenAI seems to understand, communicate, and mitigate its limitations rather than gloss over or power through them. Though their values are a bit precious, their actions clearly demonstrate an effort to “care deeply about real-world implications and applications” and “thoroughly consider the consequences of [their] work.” Who’s to say whether they’ll keep it up now that they’re out of stealth mode, but for the time being, OpenAI just might be a model for how the tech industry could be a little less evil.
This is Part 1 in a series of three posts about the upcoming year in brand.
Stay tuned—or better yet, subscribe!—for Parts 2 and 3.