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OpenAI is a research company funded by $1 billion in donations from tech heavy hitters Elon Musk, Sam Altman and Peter Thiel, launched on December 11, 2015 with the goal of advancing artificial intelligence, or AI. Artificial Intelligence is a promising field but controversial because of concerns about how machines equipped with the technology could interact with humans.

"It's hard to fathom how much human-level AI could benefit society, and it's equally hard to imagine how much it could damage society if built or used incorrectly," the organization said in a statement. "It's hard to predict when human-level AI might come within reach. When it does, it'll be important to have a leading research institution which can prioritize a good outcome for all over its own self-interest."

Musk helped launch mobile payments as a PayPal co-founder in 1998. Now, he is the CEO of electric-car maker Tesla and private space company SpaceX. Altman on the other hand is the president of of Y Combinator. He has helped launch startups including Airbnb, Dropbox and Twitch. Thiel is a major Silicon Valley investor, was a co-founder at PayPal and an early investor in Facebook.

"As a nonprofit, our aim is to build value for everyone rather than shareholders," the statement says. It also notes that researchers will be encouraged to share their work openly and all patents the organization gains will be shared with the world.

Artificial Intelligence is a term used for the ability of a machine, computer or system to exhibit humanlike intelligence, has been dominated lately by large tech companies such as Google and Facebook. In August 2014, Musk expressed fears that AI could be more dangerous than nuclear weapons.

"One can imagine such technology outsmarting financial markets, out-inventing human researchers, out-manipulating human leaders, and developing weapons we cannot even understand," Hawking said in an article he co-wrote in May for The Independent. "Whereas the short-term impact of AI depends on who controls it, the long-term impact depends on whether it can be controlled at all."