Tesla CEO Elon Musk claims that he's why OpenAI exists in the first place. However, he regrets letting go of the most popular AI platform ChatGPT.
Is Elon Musk the Reason Why There's ChatGPT?
In an interview with CNBC, Elon Musk says that he came up with OpenAI as the company's official name even before it existed.
The tech billionaire adds that Microsoft controls the ChatGPT maker, but Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella denied this assertion.
Musk also says that he was an "instrumental" part in recruiting key workers in the company, including the engineers and the scientists.
In the past, he supported OpenAI through his $1 billion investment. However, disagreements between Musk and OpenAI appeared when the tech boss did not like the latter's advancements.
At some point, Sam Altman was not the only founder of OpenAI. Elon Musk and John Schulman, Wojciech Zaremba, Greg Brockman, and Ilya Sutskever founded the company in December 2015, per Decrypt.
Safe AI Development
Musk's role in shaping OpenAI for its current position is vital. Without him, the company could not become as popular as it is now. According to Fortune, the Tesla CEO felt shameful when he parted ways with the ChatGPT creator.
He urged the company to temporarily stop the enhancements on the platform regarding safe AI development. However, he knew that the letter could not decide what would happen next.
Musk said he signed the letter about the dangers of using AI "for the record."
Elon Musk and Larry Page
Elon Musk has a beef with Larry Page, a Google co-founder who thought that everyone should not be concerned about AI safety.
Musk alleged to his "close" friend that they previously discussed the nature of AI. He added that Larry only called him "species-ist" for standing for "pro-human consciousness" instead of siding for "machine consciousness."
Google purchased DeepMind Technologies in 2014 at $500 million. The UK-based AI research lab was instrumental in carrying out numerous machine learning and programming projects.
At first, Musk thought that Google was a saving grace for the AI business, but it turned out that it was only a part of a hopeless endeavor.
Musk said that OpenAI could not go against a tech giant like Google, citing that this AI war is between an ant and an elephant.
"It does seem weird that something can be a nonprofit, open-source, and somehow transform itself into a for-profit, closed source. I also think it's important to understand when push comes to shove-let's say they create some digital super-intelligence, almost godlike intelligence, who's in control?" Musk said at that time.
Still, Musk believes that AI is a double-edged sword. It can destroy or give humanity the chance to thrive in the long run. The case of destruction is not zero, but it's very small.
