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OpenAI and Elon Musk: Closed AI vs. Open AI
Musk stated more than once that he found, after several conversations with Larry Page (co-founder of Google), that he was seeking to develop a closed, irresponsible artificial intelligence that could pose risks to humanity.
Musk’s concerns increased after Google acquired DeepMind (the most important artificial intelligence company at that time), which made him think about founding OpenAI as a non-profit organization that aims to develop open artificial intelligence that everyone can benefit from and prevent Google’s dominance. (See video with Lex Fridman).
OpenAI was launched in 2015 with support from tech stars like Musk, Reid Hoffman and Peter Thiel. It quickly attracted some of the best minds in AI. The founders, including Altman, Musk, and Brockman, agreed that the company would develop open source AI safely and for the benefit of humanity. Musk generously fund it and gave it the name OpenAI to indicate the open model it adopts compared to the closed model adopted by major companies such as Google and others.
Dispute and complaint
The partners later disagreed, and Musk did not succeed in taking charge of the company, so he left the company at the beginning of 2018 and stopped providing financial support to it.