Sam Altman and Elon Musk They do not have the best of work and friendship relationships. That has become clear with the passage of time as both characters share more details of their breakup as partners.
Not everyone knows it, but both subjects share a close past, since they were involved in the creation of OpenAIthe company focused on the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems that ended up programming ChatGPT and DALL-E.
Musk was one of the first partners and investors in this project, along with Sam Altman and other Silicon Valley figures, such as Peter Thiel, the co-founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, and the co-founder of Y Combinator, Jessica Livingston.
Things, as we already related in a recent chroniclethey went out of proportion and harmony when Elon Musk tried to take full control of OpenAI, leading to his expulsion from the company, leaving the company without access to the tycoon’s funds.
Fortunately, Altman and the rest of the team found a way to keep the company afloat and then give rise to the boom that we have witnessed around ChatGPT. A watershed that Musk completely missed.
Elon has now founded his own Artificial Intelligence company and at every possible opportunity has harshly criticized OpenAI. Today the CEO, who is also his ex-friend, has responded to those diatribes.
A “talent magnet” and “an idiot”: this is what Sam Altman thinks about Elon Musk and his time at OpenAI
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI and therefore currently responsible for the future of ChatGPT, has spoken about the history of the company in the most recent episode of the podcast In Good Company with Nicolai Tangenwithout being able to avoid the topic of Elon Musk.
There, the executive described in a brief and scathing way what the experience of collaborating with Elon was like and chose a series of descriptions with peculiar adjectives to relate the experience:
“Elon was definitely a magnet of talent and attention, no doubt, and he also has some real superpowers that were very useful to us in those early days, all that stuff aside.”
In the episode Altman addresses many details about the company’s current situation and the all kinds of challenges they face. However, the curious thing is how cordial he was when discussing the subject of Elon Musk.
Especially if we remember that in March of this same year 2023, the leader of OpenAI was still interviewed on the podcast On With Kara Swisherwhere his opinion of Musk was harsher:
“I mean, he’s an idiot, no matter what you want to say about him, he has a style that is not a style I would want to have for myself.”
Is Sam Altman softening his stance on Elon Musk? Time will give the answer.