Musk says he’s the reason OpenAI exists and he came up with the name

• Elon Musk took credit for OpenAI’s existence and said he came up with the startup’s name.
• Musk is the co-founder of OpenAI and has invested $50 million in the company. He quit his startup in 2018.
• He criticized OpenAI’s business model and its relationship with one of its current investors, Microsoft.

Elon Musk seems divided on how he feels about OpenAI.

While expressing concern about OpenAI, Musk also praised the AI ​​startup behind ChatGPT.

“I’m the reason OpenAI exists,” Musk told CNBC’s David Faber in an interview on Tuesday.

Musk told CNBC that he invested about $50 million at the time and was “intensive” in recruiting key scientists and engineers. He is also the brain behind his name, he said.

“I came up with the name,” Musk told CNBC. He added that OpenAI, which started as a nonprofit, refers to “open source.”

Musk was an early investor in OpenAI, and as of 2015, he and the startup’s current CEO, Sam Altman, were co-founders.

The CEOs of Tesla and SpaceX resigned from the board in 2018, a year before OpenAI became a “profit-limited” company, and are now vocal critics of the startup.

In February, Musk accused OpenAI of becoming “the most profitable company effectively controlled by Microsoft,” which he said was “never intended.”

“It seems strange that something could be non-commercial open source and somehow turn into commercial closed source,” he told CNBC’s Faber. “It’s like finding a group to protect the Amazon rainforest, and that group turned into a lumber company to cut down the forest and turn it into money.”

Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019. This was followed by another “billion dollar” investment in January 2023. The latest investment amount was not disclosed, but Semafor reported that it was around $10 billion.

Musk told CNBC that Microsoft can “shut down OpenAI” at any time and has a lot of control over the startup.

“I also think it’s important to understand when the pressure is on. Let’s say a digital superintelligence, an almost god-like intelligence is created. Who is in control? OpenAI and Microsoft’s What exactly is the relationship?”

Musk has also publicly warned about AI, saying the technology is “dangerous to the public.” In March, the CEOs of Tesla and SpaceX, along with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, AI experts and scientists, signed an open letter calling for a six-month moratorium on advanced AI development.

About 27,000 people have signed the open letter so far.

Despite his public stance, Musk is starting his own generative AI company called X.AI, the Financial Times reported on April 14. Musk also has AI projects on his Twitter, Kari Hayes of Insider reported him on April 11.

OpenAI, Microsoft and Musk did not immediately respond to an insider’s request for comment outside of normal business hours.