Elon Musk called himself the reason for the existence of OpenAI

In an interview with CNBC, Elon Musk, a billionaire entrepreneur, took responsibility for the creation of OpenAI and emphasized his crucial role in its inception. Musk claimed credit for naming the company and underscored his involvement in recruiting essential talents in the fields of science and engineering. 

Despite being a co-founder and making an initial investment of $1 billion in 2015, Musk later distanced himself from the organization due to disagreements, but his total investment in OpenAI reached an approximate sum of $50 million.

Musk also expressed his disapproval of OpenAI’s association with Microsoft, asserting that the tech giant has a significant influence, if not direct control, over the company. This claim arises from a $10 billion deal Microsoft made with a California-based startup, which was valued at the same amount. Developments from OpenAI, such as GPT-4, have subsequently appeared in Microsoft’s products, including the Bing search engine.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella refuted Musk’s allegation, stating that while the company holds a minority stake in OpenAI and maintains a substantial commercial partnership, Musk’s claim of control is factually incorrect.

Musk revealed that his concerns regarding artificial intelligence (AI) were often discussed with his former close friend, Google co-founder Larry Page. According to Musk, Page displayed a lack of concern for AI security, which eventually led to a rift between them. Musk emphasized his support for human consciousness rather than machine consciousness, and he accused Page of dismissing his viewpoint by accusing him of “specialism.”

In March, Musk joined hundreds of other experts in signing an open letter urging a suspension of experiments involving large language models. In April, it was reported that Musk had established his own AI company, X.AI, as a competitor to OpenAI.