Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has stated that he wants to maintain control of the company and its popular A.I. chatbot technology, which is why he won’t be taking the company public anytime soon. Altman explained that he doesn’t have equity in privately-owned OpenAI because he wants to remain non-conflicted. Speaking at an event in Abu Dhabi, Altman said that when we develop superintelligence, we’re likely to make some decisions that public market investors would view very strangely.He added that the chance that we have to make a very strange decision someday is non-trivial. Altman didn’t offer any further clarification of what this might involve but added I don’t want to be sued by…public market, Wall Street etc.
OpenAI began as a nonprofit but now operates as a capped-profit company. This capped-profit business model enables OpenAI to raise external funds with the commitment that the original nonprofit will still benefit. The Abu Dhabi event is the latest stop in Altman’s global tour to discuss reducing A.I.’s potential harm to society and regulating the technology. The comments come three weeks after Altman spoke to the Senate’s A.I. oversight committee about the dangers of A.I. and suggested that government intervention will be critical in the near future.
