Elon Musk, a well-known entrepreneur and co-founder of OpenAI, recently revealed details regarding a prior disagreement with tech billionaire Larry Page in an interview with Tucker Carlson. The two disagreed over how to approach AI safety and regulation, ultimately leading to Musk parting ways with Google’s DeepMind and creating OpenAI, which was meant to be the antithesis of Google and its practices.
Musk told Carlson that the reason OpenAI exists today is due to his disagreement with Page. He felt that the Google CEO was not serious enough on the topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI) safety. Musk had hoped for an AI that would work like a digital version of God, but when Page referred to Musk as a “speciesist”, he saw that as the last straw. This disagreement caused Musk to take it upon himself to found OpenAI, an open-source, transparent, and non-profit research initiative to inspire the development of responsible AI technologies.
OpenAI is a company co-founded by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Greg Brockman, among others. It was created with the mission of “advancing digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity.” The company is funded by $1 billion from Microsoft, as well as investments from various venture capitalists. OpenAI aims to create open-source AI technologies, as well as research and develop strategies to monitor and assess the risks associated with powerful artificial intelligence. OpenAI is also focused on preventing the misuse of AI technologies, such as manipulation or exploitation.
Meanwhile, Larry Page is the co-founder and CEO of Google. He has been instrumental in steering Google towards many of its advances in AI such as the acquisition of DeepMind, which Page helped acquire during his tenure as CEO. Larry Page is known for his strong support for using AI for the betterment of humanity, believing AI to be paramount to our future. However, his approach to AI safety did not align with Musk’s views, leading to their disagreement and ultimately OpenAI’s establishment. As a result, the AI race that is currently taking place has been largely spurred on by the technologies developed by OpenAI, as well as Google’s ambitious AI-based undertakings.
