The Future of AI Will Be Won in Ownership, Not Just Alignment
Mira Murati Has the Vision—Here’s the Cheat Code to Keep It
AI’s future won’t be shaped by who aligns it—it will be determined by who owns it. Without ownership, alignment becomes just another marketing pitch.
My intention is simple: to be useful.
I align with what Mira Murati and Thinking Machines Lab are trying to build. I respect her values, her mission, and her leadership. That’s why I’m offering this cheat code—because I’ve spent 25+ years mapping the future before others even see the terrain.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed person is king.
That’s my superpower. I see the patterns, the pitfalls, and the power moves before they happen. That’s not arrogance. That’s decades of experience.
This is my highest-level analysis: not descriptive (what happened), not just predictive (what will happen), but prescriptive (what needs to happen next).
I’m not here to critique—I’m here to future-proof Thinking Machines Lab. Because if they get this right, they won’t just build another AI company—they’ll change the entire game.
AI’s Next Big Battle Isn’t Technical—It’s Structural
Mira Murati left OpenAI for a reason. And it’s the same reason every mission-driven founder eventually leaves their own creation.
“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.” — Eric Hoffer
OpenAI also started as a mission-first research lab. They even structured it as a non-profit to ensure AI remained for the people. But then the money came.
They found a workaround—a for-profit arm that let investors take control. Sam Altman resisted, got pushed out, and when he returned, OpenAI was no longer Open—it was Microsoft’s.
That’s why Mira and others left. Because they saw the inevitable: when you take the wrong money, your mission is no longer yours.
Thinking Machines Lab now has a rare window to avoid this fate. But only if it builds the right financial, governance, and ownership structure from the start.
The Blueprint for Future-Proofing Thinking Machines Lab
1️⃣ Learn From DeepSeek & Qwen—Open Models Can Reshape the Entire Market
In January 2025, DeepSeek’s R1 model dropped, proving that open-source AI could match industry leaders at a fraction of the cost.
The result? Nvidia lost $589 billion in market value in a single day.
The message was clear: Open models aren’t just viable—they’re the future.
“There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.” — Vladimir Lenin
If Nvidia could lose half a trillion in value overnight, what does that say about AI’s old business model?
That’s the inflection point Thinking Machines Lab must capitalize on.
→ The real lesson? AI models don’t just need to be open-source—they need to be open-owned.
🔹 If Thinking Machines Lab stops at open access, they’re still vulnerable.
🔹 They need a financial and governance model that makes them untouchable.
🔹 Solution: Crowdfund ownership through mission coins, community investment, and tokenized governance.
Because open-source without open ownership is just a Trojan Horse.
“Control always finds its way back to those who fund it.”
2️⃣ Crowdsourcing Isn’t Enough—True Crowd Governance Is the Missing Piece
Right now, AI companies treat crowdsourcing as free labor.
They take user feedback, but the users themselves have no real power in shaping the AI they use every day.
That’s old-world thinking. The future isn’t just user engagement—it’s user governance.
Instead of a passive “feedback loop,” build an active participation system:
✅ Impact badges that recognize meaningful contributions (from testing models to refining prompts).
✅ High-level contributors gain direct access to leadership & developer calls.
✅ Voting power is tied to participation, so the people most invested in AI alignment actually shape its evolution.
🚀 This isn’t just gamification—it’s governance.
Users don’t just give feedback—they greenlight features, steer development, and even veto extractive moves.
They don’t work for the AI—the AI works for them.
That’s the shift Thinking Machines Lab needs to make.
3️⃣ The Web3 Play: Make AI a Self-Sustaining Economy
Funding AI shouldn’t mean selling control to the highest bidder—it should mean creating an economy that funds itself.
How? By embedding AI into an ownership-based Web3 model:
✅ Mission Coins → Stakeholder tokens that give contributors real influence.
✅ NFT-Based Artist Collaborations → Every time a mission coin is sold, the artist gets paid.
✅ Decentralized Revenue Sharing → Every transaction feeds back into AI development, ensuring financial independence from Big Tech.
Think of the top 1% of digital artists. They don’t just have talent; they have tribes—thousands of engaged followers.
Give them mission coins, and they do the heavy lifting: evangelizing the platform, bringing in new users, and creating viral network effects AI companies typically have to buy with VC dollars.
This isn’t a gimmick. This is the future of funding open AI.
When users become owners, incentives align permanently with the mission.
Mira’s Leadership Is the Wildcard—She Can Set a New Standard
Thinking Machines Lab is already structured as a public benefit corporation. That’s a strong start.
But even the best intentions can be eroded by bad structures.
🔹 Murati has already attracted top minds from OpenAI, Meta, and Mistral.
🔹 Now, she has to make sure they—and the users—actually have power over what they’re building.
It’s not just about building AI for the people. It’s about building AI with the people.
Final Challenge: Will Thinking Machines Lab Be Just Another AI Company—Or the Prototype for the Future?
Here’s the real question:
Who owns AI?
If Mira follows the traditional VC route, the answer will be the same people who own every other major tech company.
And eventually, Thinking Machines Lab will become the very thing it was created to challenge.
Or—she can pioneer the path that changes everything.
✅ Mission-driven funding, not extractive capital.
✅ A community-driven governance model, not just user engagement.
✅ A financial structure that locks in alignment, not just technical transparency.
“Will Thinking Machines Lab be another OpenAI—destined to be absorbed by Big Tech? Or will it break the cycle and set the standard for the next century of AI?”
🚀 Mira, this is your moment. The decision you make now will define the future—not just of your company, but of AI itself.
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This is in alignment with what i see coming too. Would love to collaborate!
Message me. Let’s talk.