During an interview, Sam Altman expressed his concerns regarding his prolonged dispute with Elon Musk. He also expressed his disappointment with Biden’s administration. By the look of things, his problems will not end with Kamala and Biden.
Why? Given Elon Musk’s involvement in the Trump administration, Sam Altman has all the reasons to be worried. Could Trump’s presidency pose a threat to ChatGPT and Open AI?
Sam Altman appeared on the Honestly with Bari Weiss podcast on Thursday. In answering the question about his feud with Elon Musk, he explained, “I think it’s because he wants the most powerful AI in the world to be controlled by him.”
Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI but cut ties with the company in 2018. Ever since he started fighting Altman and OpenAI. He has also made it known that he does not trust Sam Altman to head the most powerful AI in the world
Elon Musk says he doesn’t trust OpenAI or Sam Altman and he doesn’t want the most powerful AI in the world controlled by someone who is not trustworthy pic.twitter.com/M2C35mMzeb
— Tsarathustra (@tsarnick) October 7, 2024
In addition, Musk founded the xAI model Grok which has been a competitor to OpenAI. He pushed artificial intelligence programs, notably ChatGPT, into the political spotlight, claiming that AI models have grown “too woke” and “politically correct.” Clearly, Musk no longer supports OpenAI or Sam Altman.
Musk and Sam Altman’s ongoing feud
Musk was recently elected as an exec at the US government’s Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E) alongside Vivek Ramaswamy. This explains Altman’s concern about OpenAI under the new administration.
In the interview, Altman expressed his anxiety when he said, “I remember what it was like when there were moments since then where it felt like he kinda wanted to reconcile and find a way to work together.”
Musk was one of the first people to back OpenAI in 2015 and is widely regarded as one of its co-founders.
Initially, Musk’s reason for investing in OpenAI was to create AI that benefits humanity while being open and accessible. It was established as a non-profit to ensure that it remained true to its objective.
However, in the interview, Altman said that Musk has never believed in OpenAI. He made a statement, “I remember what it was like when he said OpenAI has a 0% chance of success and you guys are idiots, and I’m pulling funding, and I’m going to do my own thing,”
According to reports, Musk resigned from OpenAI’s board due to concerns about potential conflicts with Tesla’s own expanding AI endeavors, particularly in driverless vehicles.
His departure from the organization signaled the start of a strained relationship with OpenAI, which deteriorated as the company transitioned to a “capped-profit” model in 2019.
Musk thought that this approach contradicted the initial objective and suggested that OpenAI was becoming more commercially motivated.
To that end, Musk has been in court with lawsuits against the company. He accused Altman of making OpenAI a profit-making company when it started as a non-profit.
In the interview, Altman explained, “I’ve seen Elon’s attacks to many other people, many friends of mine, everyone gets their period of time in his spotlight. But this all seems like standard behavior from him.”
Biden’s administration versus Trump’s administration – Sam Altman’s take
There have been allegations that Biden’s administration was attempting to control and regulate AI. This allegedly caused only a few large companies that would work with the government and be protected from competition.
However, Altman answered, “I don’t think it’s true, I don’t know what he’s referencing […] I think regulation that reduces competition for AI is a very bad thing,”
He added, “I don’t even think like the Biden administration is competent is enough to… I mean, we were in a room with them, and other companies and the administration.”
Also, the co-founder of OpenAI stated that he believed Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was more conscious of AI’s emergence and the areas that required prioritization than the Biden administration as a whole.
Still, Altman expressed that he expects the next administration to do a better job. In a statement, he stated, “The things that I think should have been the administration’s priorities and I hope will be the next administration’s priorities are building out massive AI infrastructure in the U.S., having a supply chain in the U.S., things like that.”
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