Tech

OpenAI's Sam Altman says his 'hero' Elon Musk is 'obviously attacking' the company on Twitter

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk. Getty
Read in app

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged Elon Musk's recent criticisms about his company on Twitter. 

Speaking on an episode of Lex Fridman's podcast, released on March 25, Altman said: "Elon is obviously attacking us some on Twitter right now on a few different vectors."

Musk, an OpenAI cofounder who has since severed ties with the company, has made a series of digs at OpenAI in recent months. The billionaire accused the previously non-profit organization of becoming a "maximum profit company" amid its partnership with Microsoft. The tech giant has invested more than $10 billion into OpenAI.

Musk has also taken aim at the company's viral chatbot, ChatGP – raising concerns about its seemingly inflexible responses. He also described the technology as "scary good" on Twitter and said that "we are not far from dangerously strong AI."

Speaking on the podcast, Altman said that he understands Musk's reservations about artificial general intelligence (AGI) – AI systems that are capable of thinking and learning intellectual tasks like a human. Experts have expressed concern over the technology saying these systems could lead to "catastrophic outcomes" if they behave in unexpected ways or become difficult to control. 

"I believe he is, understandably so, really stressed about AGI safety," Altman said, describing Musk as one of his heroes. But he wished that Musk would do more to acknowledge the work that OpenAI is doing to resolve these concerns. OpenAI has encouraged conversations about governing these systems and says it is gathering feedback from the public to shape its tech.

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

OpenAI's ChatGPT has also been criticized by some users who claim the bot generates answers with political biases. Musk has routinely pointed out these instances on Twitter.

Addressing this criticism, Altman said on the podcast: "I think it was too biased — and will always be. There will be no one version of GPT that the world ever agrees is unbiased."

"We will try to get the default version to be as neutral as possible, but as neutral as possible is not that neutral if you have to do it for more than one person," he continued.

Read next

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.