OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman says Elon Musk wouldn’t use political clout against rivals – report

OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman said that the next major developments in the AI space will be more disruptive than people expect, and that he does not think Elon Musk would use his political power with Donald Trump to harm rivals, Variety reported.

Altman was speaking at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit in New York City on Wednesday. He noted that as soon as 2025 the industry will start to see the first examples of artificial general intelligence, or AGI, in which one can give an AI system a complicated task, and it will use different tools to complete it, the report added.

At first, the introduction of AGI — or “superintelligence” as some define it — will have minimal effect, said Altman. However, eventually, it would “be more intense than people think,” said Altman adding that with every major technological development, there has been significant job displacement.

When asked about critics who say OpenAI is not focused enough on safety, Altman noted that ChatGPT “is now generally considered by most of society to be acceptably safe and acceptably robust.” He added that while “there are definitely people who think ChatGPT is not sufficiently safe” the company believes that iterative deployment is vital and that “you have to start when the stakes are lower.”

Altman also talked about tech tycoon Elon Musk. Tesla CEO Musk was among the co-founders of OpenAI — which is backed by Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) — along with Altman. Musk has sued OpenAI and Altman, alleging breach of contract by deviating from its original nonprofit mission.

“I grew up seeing Elon as a mega-hero,” said Altman. “At some point [Musk] totally lost faith in OpenAI,” he added.

Altman also said he thinks Musk’s own AI startup xAI will be a serious competitor.

In addition, Altman noted that he does not think Musk would use his political clout with Donald Trump to harm competitors, saying that such behavior would be “profoundly un-American.”

In October, OpenAI raised about $6.6N in new funding from investors including Microsoft and Nvidia (NVDA) giving it a valuation of $157B.

On OpenAI’s collaboration with Microsoft, Altman noted that it has not been without “misalignments or challenges” but added that on the whole it has been a “positive thing for both companies.”

Altman said, “there’s not no tension, but on the whole our priorities are aligned,” as per the report.

Altman also said that ChatGPT now has over 300 million users per week, up from the 200 million weekly users in August, The Verge reported.