When OpenAI was founded nearly a decade ago, the idea was to prevent any one company from dominating artificial intelligence research.
At least, that’s how Elon Musk remembers it.
Looking back now, the trillionaire believes that effort may have had the opposite effect.
Instead of slowing the concentration of power in AI, he says the creation of OpenAI helped push the entire industry into an even faster race.
Musk Reflects On OpenAI’s Early Days
Speaking in an interview with The Economist, Musk said OpenAI was originally set up to serve as a counterweight to Google’s growing influence in artificial intelligence.
But, in hindsight, he believes the strategy didn’t unfold the way he expected.
As per Musk, OpenAI’s emergence, followed later by the creation of Anthropic, ended up accelerating competition across the AI industry instead of reducing the concentration of power.
Rather than slowing the pace of development, he suggested it encouraged companies to move even faster.
Musk also mirrored on Anthropic’s origins, claiming the company’s founders left OpenAI after losing confidence in CEO Sam Altman.
He argued that Anthropic likely wouldn’t exist today had its leadership remained at OpenAI.
Despite years of public disagreements with the company, Musk described Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei as someone who is guided by principles and deeply concerned about the long-term consequences of advanced AI.
The OpenAI Dispute And Musk’s Safety Proposal
Elon Musk has been one of ChatGPT maker’s most vocal critics since the organisation shifted from its original nonprofit structure toward a commercial business model.
As previously reported by Reuters, several claims in Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, Sam Altman, Microsoft and other defendants were dismissed by a US federal court earlier this year.
Musk has since indicated that he plans to appeal the decision.
Beyond the legal battle, Musk also outlined how he believes AI safety should be handled going forward.
Instead of relying primarily on regulators, he suggested that leading AI companies should review one another’s most advanced models before they are released publicly.
In his view, competitors have a strong incentive to identify dangerous capabilities or safety flaws, making peer review an effective safeguard.
Government intervention, Musk argued, should become necessary only if a company ignores serious safety concerns raised by others in the industry.
