OpenAI was launched as an open-source, non-profit organisation.
Elon Musk was part of it at some point.
OpenAI started out in 2015 a non-profit as the goal was to develop AI rather than to make money, because if your main goal is profit you tend to look for speed. You tend to skip steps.
The goal was to get $1 billion in funding, but they ‘only’ got around $130 million.
Which wasn’t enough.
It was at that point, basically when money was running out, that they switched to a hybrid non-profit, for-profit model.
But even then, the for-profit part was limited to a certain percentage.
After which, the extra money would go back to the non-profit part.
Fast-forward to part three, it is now 2019, and Microsoft provided OpenAI with a $1 billion investment and a $10 billion investment came in 2023.
As part of this newly-founded partnership, Microsoft acquired a 49% stake in OpenAI, which is why it was so easy for them to say ‘oh yeah we hired Sam Altman’ and then two seconds later ‘oh no worries Sam Altman is going back to OpenAI’.
Because that’s a bit like saying you went from your office to your conference room when you own the whole building.
Sam Altman was ousted because the Board felt he’d been lying to them.
Shortly thereafter, they realised firing him had been a mistake, so they hired him back.
The fact that nearly 80 percent (!) of OpenAI entire workforce threatened to resign over Sam Altman’s departure probably helped.
This article was crossposted on Publish0x.
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