OpenAI CEO Criticizes Company Name and Defends Transition to Profit Model

OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk in 2015, has recently faced criticism from its CEO, Sam Altman. Altman has suggested that the company’s name may not be the most ideal one for the company. He explained on a podcast that when the company was first established, they did not have a clear vision of what it would become. Initially, OpenAI was intended to be a research lab and it was not until later that they began to explore ideas like selling access to a chatbot and other products.

Altman defended the company’s decisions, noting that transitioning from a nonprofit to a “capped-profit” model in 2019 was necessary as they needed to do different things and raise more capital. He acknowledged that if he had the chance to go back in time and rethink decisions, he might have chosen a different name for the company. However, he emphasized that OpenAI’s technology is accessible in other ways, such as offering a free version to the public.

Despite not being completely open-source, Altman believes that providing powerful AI tools at low or no cost is significant in fulfilling their mission. He also mentioned that founder Elon Musk expressed dissatisfaction with the company not being fully open-source and filed a lawsuit against them for allegedly breaching their founding agreement and straying from their nonprofit mission. Musk even proposed changing their name to “ClosedAI” as a solution.