This story is about a battle between two tech moguls. It is not a battle being fought in the ring or on the court, nor is it a battle between artificial intelligence and electric cars. It is a battle of integrity—a battle between right and wrong.
It is a battle between Elon Musk and Sam Altman. Elon Musk is the founder of Tesla and SpaceX and the richest person in the world.
Sam Altman, on the other hand, is the CEO of OpenAI, the organization behind ChatGPT; he is also a billionaire worth about 1.1 billion US dollars.
So what is this about? Let’s delve into this deeper.
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In 2015, Elon Musk and others, including Sam Altman, started OpenAI as a non-profit organization, meaning no profit for its owners or shareholders.
OpenAI was to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI) for the benefit of humanity. Again, it was to ensure that the non-profit goal remained at the forefront, with any profits beyond a certain cap being directed back to the non-profit arm.
Elon donated millions to help kickstart OpenAI. But somewhere along the way, things went south. Elon wasn’t happy, so he sent the entire OpenAI team an email telling them to “continue OpenAI as a non-profit entity or go do something else.”
However, in 2019, OpenAI divulged its non-profit mission. They found out that the non-profit model was insufficient to raise the necessary funds they needed.
So what did they do? They created a for-profit subsidiary, meaning OpenAI started to make profit.
The change was driven by the immense costs of AI research, which required substantial funding beyond what donations could provide, as well as the costs associated with AI development, particularly computational resources and talent acquisition.
By September 2024, it was announced that OpenAI was planning to further transition into a fully for-profit entity, specifically a public benefit corporation, which its non-profit board would no longer govern.
This sudden shift raised concerns about potential mission drift and led to notable exits, including:
- Mira Murati: Chief Technology Officer
- Greg Brockman: President & Co-founder
- Ilya Sutskever: Co-founder & Chief Scientist
- John Schulman: Co-founder
- Bob McGrew: Chief Research Officer
- Barret Zoph: Vice President of Research
- Jan Leike: Co-head of the Super Alignment Team
- Peter Deng: Vice President of Consumer Products and
- Alex Radford, one of the OG researchers
Aside from these high-profile resignations at OpenAI, the public has also criticized it. Some say OpenAI has strayed from its original ideals.
One such person is Elon Musk, who quit the company in 2018, and has been vocal about his concerns, even calling OpenAI’s drift a ‘betrayal’ of its original mission.
Elon went on to chastise Altman, saying, “I don’t trust OpenAI and Sam Altman. I don’t think we want to have the most powerful AI in the world controlled by someone who is not trustworthy.”
But Altman? He’s not holding back anymore. He’s accusing Musk of being a disruptor—not in a good way—but as someone who thrives on conflict.”
He also claims Musk wanted more control over OpenAI, and when that didn’t happen, he left.
But is that true? Altman has said he has no equity in OpenAI.
It’s important to note the for-profit arm of OpenAI would operate more traditionally, with CEO Sam Altman set to receive equity, potentially valued at $150 billion, reflecting a significant departure from his previous non-equity status.
So, who’s right here, Elon or Altman?
Now, here’s the twist: this isn’t just about two billionaires clashing. It’s about the future of technology. Musk has raised concerns about AI safety, claiming that tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT could become too powerful and unregulated.
On the other hand, Altman argues that OpenAI is doing more to promote safe AI development than anyone else.”
And let’s not forget, Musk isn’t just sitting on the sidelines. He’s working on his own AI project—xAI—which he says will focus on truth-seeking artificial intelligence.
So, what do you think? Is this feud about legitimate concerns over technology, or is it just another case of billionaire egos colliding?
Remember, there’s been public and industry debate over whether this move signifies OpenAI’s prioritization of financial gain over its founding mission, with some like Mozilla’s president, Mark Surman, suggesting, quote,
“The principled staff exodus at OpenAI is another example of their true long-term goal: profit.”
He added, “As far as we can tell, OpenAI no longer exists as a public interest organization.”
For now, we wait to see what happens. Will Elon, the world’s most powerful unelected official, use his influence to stop OpenAI and Sam Altman, or has the train already left the station?
Let us know in the comments below.
