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Elon Musk cut off OpenAI's access to Twitter's data because he felt the company wasn't paying enough, report says

OpenAI logo displayed on a phone screen and Elon Musk's Twitter account displayed on a screen in the background
Elon Musk has been critical of OpenAi. NurPhotos/Getty Images
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In December, only weeks after OpenAI launched ChatGPT, the company had its access to Twitter's data shut down, per a report. 

Two sources familiar with the matter told The New York Times that Twitter CEO and OpenAI cofounder, Elon Musk, was reportedly behind the decision. Musk felt that the approximately $2 million a year OpenAI was paying to license the company's data was not enough, 

The AI company had been licensing Twitter's data to help build its AI chatbot, per the NYT.

Musk has been wary of advanced AI for some time and was becoming increasingly critical of OpenAI around the time of the decision.

Musk began criticizing the company's viral chatbot in December, suggesting the tech suffered from bias issues and that it was capable of lying. Since then, Musk has accused OpenAI of being a "maximum profit" company and has signed an open letter that called for a six-month pause on AI development.

Despite this hesitance around the technology, Musk is embarking on his own generative AI project, per reports. The company is reportedly called X.AI.

Musk has said he wants to create a chatbot similar to OpenAI's viral hit, potentially called "TruthGPT," that would be a "maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe."

Musk has also been in talks with Jimmy Ba, a researcher and professor at the University of Toronto, about the new company, The Times reported, citing three people with knowledge of the matter. Musk has also hired top researchers from Alphabet's DeepMind to work at Twitter, per the publication.

Representatives for OpenAI and Elon Musk did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside normal working hours.

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Beatrice Nolan was a tech reporter on the business news team in the UK. She joined Insider in January 2022 as a fellow on Business Insider's careers desk. Beatrice covered tech and the future of work, with a focus on artificial intelligence. Some of her stories and early experiments with ChatGPT are widely cited. Beatrice has also discussed her work covering AI trends on panels and radio shows, including NPR.She was based in Business Insider's London office and graduated from the University of  York with a bachelor's degree in English.Featured Articles:Artists say AI image generators are copying their style to make thousands of new images — and it's completely out of their control.ChatGPT was a black swan eventFinland is the world's happiest country, but Finns say we're confusing happiness for something elseThe world is splitting between those who use ChatGPT to get better, smarter, richer — and everyone elseThis man used AI to write and illustrate a children's book in one weekend. He wasn't prepared for the backlash.ChatGPT has only been around for 2 months and is causing untold chaosTwo professors who say they caught students cheating on essays with ChatGPT explain why AI plagiarism can be hard to proveChatGPT wrote college application essays. Admissions professionals said they passed for essays written by students but wouldn't have a chance at any top colleges.College professors are considering creative ways to stop students from using AI to cheatChatGPT wrote my cover letters. Here's how recruiters responded.