Elon Musk Offers $97.4 Billion to Acquire OpenAI Amid Public Clash with CEO Sam Altman

In a daring and unexpected maneuver, Elon Musk has put forward a bid for $97.4 billion to buy OpenAI, a top artificial intelligence research outfit.

Musk’s offer comes as many are worried that OpenAI has become too much like a typical Silicon Valley company and is no longer fully committed to its founding mission of being a nonprofit focused on safe, open-source AI research. Musk, famous for his work with Tesla and SpaceX (and less so for his recent controversies involving Twitter), has said he’s unhappy with the way OpenAI is now operating and believes it has become something too close to an “AI profit center.”

The announcement came with a statement from Musk, who made his desire quite clear: he wants to take OpenAI back to its roots. “OpenAI was created to ensure that artificial intelligence benefits humanity,” said Musk. “But as the organization has evolved, it has shifted away from its nonprofit ideals. I believe that by acquiring OpenAI, I can restore it to its original purpose, where it can continue to innovate while prioritizing safety and openness.”

The offer of $97.4 billion from Musk is not a small sum and would represent one of the most significant acquisitions in the sectors of technology and AI. Musk clearly sees OpenAI not just as an organization, but as an essential component in the artificial intelligence development that AI continues to become integral part of in industries from healthcare to autonomous vehicles. He believes that with a little push, OpenAI could take the lead in the space where it appears to be focused—in development beneficial to society, as opposed to seeking profits that “realign” its “focus.”

Musk’s offer to acquire OpenAI has not sat well with the leadership of the nonprofit, especially with CEO Sam Altman. Altman and Musk have now publicly aired their differences. Altman went on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to respond directly to Musk’s offer. He and the organization’s board pointedly declined to take Musk’s money, with Altman going so far as to jokingly suggest that—if it came to it—OpenAI would buy Twitter instead.

Altman’s reaction was both a funny shot and a clear refusal to even consider Musk’s offer to buy OpenAI. Musk, for his part, is not one to hold back when he feels he’s been wronged. On X, he immediately dubbed Altman a “fraudster,” charged him with really messing up OpenAI, and asserted that Altman had taken the organization in an entirely different direction for not terribly clear reasons.

The back-and-forth has ignited blistering debates in the tech world—about the future direction of OpenAI, among other things. Musk has tried to make himself a hero of sorts in the recent past. He styled himself as someone who cares about AI safety and, um, the openness of AI. By contrast, Altman (and, one presumes, the people at OpenAI who support him) seems to care more about not having AI-killing disasters happen on our watch and more about not, you know, making a batch of AI that the world can use and get profits from.

Musk’s offer has focused attention on the larger questions surrounding artificial intelligence’s development. OpenAI, under Altman’s command, has made unprecedented progress in many areas, and especially the one most pertinent to this discussion: natural language processing. It is hard to overstate how revolutionary in both good and bad ways the models OpenAI has built and released (GPT-3 and now GPT-4) are. Yet, all this commercial success has made Musk—and many others—deeply concerned about the potential outcomes of OpenAI’s “very powerful and unsafe” technologies.

OpenAI, which started as a nonprofit organization, is now a for-profit, capped-profit company that can use the money it makes to fund more AI research and development. By contrast, under Musk’s plan, OpenAI would return to being a nonprofit. As it happens, the vision that Musk appears to have for OpenAI—the potential risks of AI under its current leadership—focuses not on innovation but on controlling those potential risks and minimizing them.

In contrast, Altman and his team at OpenAI argue that a hybrid model—one that accommodates both profit-making and safety measures—is the best way to ensure long-term sustainability and broad adoption of AI technologies. OpenAI’s partnerships with major corporations, not least Microsoft, have given it the kind of funding and infrastructure that not too long ago would have been the preserve of state-run laboratories or large research foundations. But this partnership has led some critics to wonder aloud whether OpenAI’s financial backers, particularly Microsoft, might compromise its commitment to the public good.

Musk and Altman are embroiled in a public feud that adds another layer of complexity to the future of AI. They are not just any two guys; they are influential figures in the tech world. Their spat provides a nice visual for the ideological divide over the path that AI is taking. On one side are Musk and his view of AI as something that needs to be carefully controlled for the public good. On the other are Altman and his view of AI as a market-driven public service.

Musk’s offer is probably not going to be accepted any time soon, and it is not a big step toward a comprehensive solution to the larger, much-needed conversation about OpenAI’s future. But does the pushback from OpenAI mean anything? Musk has always occupied a space that straddles narrative and reality, and let us not forget that he and OpenAI were once partners. To take the conversation in a direction Altman might prefer, is Musk any less serious a figure than those who extol the positive potential of AI in a way that does not really engage with its governance issues?

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

Follow us on Twitter @themerklehash to stay updated with the latest Crypto, NFT, AI, Cybersecurity, and Metaverse news!

Image Source: fellowneko/123RF // Image Effects by Colorcinch

The post Elon Musk Offers $97.4 Billion to Acquire OpenAI Amid Public Clash with CEO Sam Altman appeared first on The Merkle News.