The Controversial Birth of OpenAI

I’m still dumbfounded by the amount of people that have no idea what Silicon Valley actually is. Well if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you have an idea of what this place is and why it’s so popular. Simply for context, I’ll give a short description: Silicon Valley is basically a base for the giant tech-based firms in the United States situated in Northern California. From developing start ups to billion-dollar companies, the area has it all. The name was gotten from Silicon which is chiefly used in the manufacturing of chips and transistors for devices. Today we’ll be deviating from the normalcy of this newsletter and diving in to see what the controversial birth of one of these tech firms is (OpenAI) and how it displays the commitment of many to technological advancement.

I guess you could say it started with an AI firm many years ago by the name of DeepMind. Founded by Demis Hassabis, the company was a leading developer in machine learning technology way before ChatGPT. Fast forward to 2014, DeepMind is acquired by Google for about $400 million. This is a step in an important direction for Larry Page (Google’s co-founder) as he’s a firm believer in the power that AI must one day merge with human life.

Freaky, right?

Well, Elon Musk (he’ll probably be a hot topic in many more issues to come) was not having it as he’s been very vocal on the danger he sees in AI and how humans should be the centre of the technology: not coexisting with it. Eventually, he joins forces with Sam Altman to develop a company to compete with Google’s DeepMind in hopes of dominating the space, so as to have some control over what flies and what doesn’t. They decide to call it OpenAI (Open because it’ll be open source) and decide to make it non-profit. While Elon provides funding for the company, Sam gathers the brains for the operation from far and wide.

Problem was, DeepMind was no newcomer to the space and as a result, were constantly beating OpenAI to the technological breakthroughs. Also, the funding was nowhere near enough to sponsor all the research going on despite Elon’s influence. So, they decided to switch gears and change to a for-profit organisation.

Reportedly, Elon offered to take ownership of OpenAI with the belief that things would be better with him calling the shots. Well, he was rejected and then he proceeded to leave the company. This left Sam as the face of the company.

So where would things go from here?

Basically, OpenAI faced some tough decisions and some tough calls had to be made. Obviously, turning into a for-profit organisation was a major controversy the company faced. I mean, their whole MO was that they were making this tech for the people alone and with no monetary gains for themselves. Challenges like this faced this company time and time again.

You may be wondering, “What could be the solution to this conundrum?”

Well, Sam came up with one. Over time, it’s for-profit and non profit segments where separated. The for-profit generated funding but existed solely while workers received payments. The non-profit on the other hand, made no gains but its members were giving a say in the affairs of the company.

Things would only get better on from here. For instance, growth continually occurred and great breakthroughs were continually made like GPT4, DALLE and others. Also, Microsoft’s $1 billion investment in the company paid off and they continue to be a huge part in supporting the company.

But of course, the most important question:

Why should you care?

I believe this story is one that shows, many things: from a desire to put humanity first to struggles for power. But above all else, it shows a dedication to development. I mean, OpenAI remained functional despite criticism from all directions. They made the necessary calls to make sure their work continued.

The average person probably wouldn’t agree to work without getting paid, but these people did.

Why?

It’s because there was a vision.

A goal: To ensure that man continues to govern over this fast-growing technology.

They ensured they stuck to that above all else and in the end, it paid off.

Now we can have some sort of comfort knowing that people are out there ensuring we stay a step ahead of the dangers if this strange intelligence.

Thanks for reading and see you next week.