OpenAI, in its first public comments since Elon Musk’s lawsuit against the artificial intelligence, said Mr. Musk tried to turn the lab from a nonprofit into a for-profit business before leaving the organization in early 2018.
See also: OpenAI's tumultuous weekend
The comments, published in a blog post Tuesday night, are part of an ongoing dispute between Elon Musk and OpenAI, which is now on the rise in its artificial intelligence efforts. The company said it intended to file a motion to dismiss all claims in Mr. Musk’s lawsuit
Elon Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, on Friday, accusing them of breach of contract by placing profit and commercial interests above developing artificial intelligence for the public good. He said that when the artificial intelligence lab entered into a multibillion-dollar partnership with tech giant Microsoft, it abandoned its founding promise to carefully develop artificial intelligence and share it freely with the public.
Elon Musk helped found OpenAI as a nonprofit in 2015 with Mr. Altman, Greg Brockman , a former vice president of technology at payments company Stripe, and a handful of AI researchers . Altman and Brockman had set a goal of raising about $100 million , but Musk suggested they announce to the press and public that they intended to raise $1 billion and that he would provide the additional funds, according to an email included in the publication.
See also: Sam Altman returns to OpenAI
The company said Elon Musk was among OpenAI leaders who realized in early 2017 that if it remained a nonprofit, it would not be able to raise the money it would need to achieve its ambitious goal of building AGI, a machine that can do anything the human mind can.
When creating a for-profit company, Elon Musk and the other founders of OpenAI agreed that he wanted to have a majority stake in the company, initial control of the board of directors and be the CEO, OpenAI said. During the discussions, he retained funding from the nonprofit arm, OpenAI said.
The other founders could not agree to his terms because they believed giving one person total control over the organization was contrary to its vision, OpenAI said. Mr. Musk then proposed integrating OpenAI into the electric car company Tesla, according to another email included in the blog post.
In his lawsuit, Elon Musk argued that OpenAI had violated its original mission by no longer sharing its underlying technology with the public, what he calls “open source.”
See also: New York Times: Lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI
What is the significance of OpenAI for the future of artificial intelligence?
Beyond the recent events with Elon Musk, OpenAI is an organization that seeks to advance artificial intelligence in a safe and fair way. Its importance for the future of artificial intelligence is enormous, as the applications of artificial intelligence are constantly increasing. OpenAI seeks to create artificial general intelligence (AGI), which could perform any task that a human could perform. This could lead to a revolution in many fields, such as medicine, education, science, and technology. In addition, OpenAI seeks to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) will benefit all people. Finally, OpenAI is dedicated to providing an open and transparent platform for research in artificial intelligence. This encourages collaboration and knowledge sharing, which is vital for the advancement of artificial intelligence.
Source: nytimes
