Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur and founder of Tesla and SpaceX, has expressed his disappointment over the direction taken by OpenAI, a non-profit artificial intelligence research organization that he co-founded in 2015. Musk, who donated $100 million to the organization at the time of its inception, has criticized OpenAI for becoming a “for-profit” company with a market capitalization of $30 billion.
In a tweet on March 16, Musk said, “I am extremely disappointed with OpenAI. It originally started as a non-profit to ensure the safe development of AI. Now it’s just a $30B market cap for-profit company.” The tweet has since garnered over 20,000 likes and nearly 3,000 retweets.
Musk’s comments come after OpenAI announced its latest funding round, which raised $1.5 billion at a valuation of $30 billion. The funding round was led by venture capital firm Altimeter Capital, with participation from existing investors such as Microsoft, Reid Hoffman, and Khosla Ventures.
OpenAI was founded with the goal of developing artificial intelligence in a safe and beneficial way, with a focus on ensuring that AI technology is used for the benefit of humanity. The organization’s original mission was to develop AI technologies that could be shared freely and openly, without being controlled by any one company or individual.
However, in recent years, OpenAI has shifted its focus towards commercial applications of AI. In 2019, the organization announced that it was creating a for-profit subsidiary, OpenAI LP, with the goal of developing AI technologies that could be used by businesses to improve their operations. This move was seen as a departure from the organization’s original mission, which was to develop AI technology for the public good.
Musk’s comments have sparked a debate within the AI research community about the role of non-profit organizations in the development of AI technology. Some experts argue that non-profits are better positioned to develop AI in a safe and beneficial way, as they are not driven by profit motives. Others, however, argue that for-profit companies are necessary to drive innovation and bring AI technologies to market.
Regardless of the debate, Musk’s criticism of OpenAI highlights the challenges that arise when organizations shift their focus from non-profit to for-profit activities. It remains to be seen how OpenAI will balance its commercial ambitions with its original mission of developing AI technology for the public good.
