Mid Week Report

Big news out of OpenAi and others

Zander Huff
March 06, 2024

Happy Wednesday to all my favorite normies out there. While there have been more top stories since Sunday, OpenAi responded to months of Elon’s comments with a 🎤 drop late last night. We’re here to cover that today.

You can find the full blog article in the resources below, but I’ll summarize it to save you time.

In the blog, OpenAi shows email receipts from Elon. Many things contradict what he’s been saying for the last couple of months, which I find frustrating.

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OpenAi x Elon
What Elon Wanted

Seemingly from the blog post, Elon wanted 2 things:

Number 1: Elon wanted OpenAi to have more money, IMMEDIATELY.

One of the first problems that Elon notes is he felt OpenAi stood a “0% chance” of competing with Google if nothing changed. Not a 1%, or even a ½% but a 0% chance.

To compete with Google, you must have sufficient funds as they are a power house. For a company to come from nothing other than a few backers to take on arguably the most company in the world, it is a David vs Goliath story in the truest sense.

Number 2: Elon wanted different leadership, aka himself in full control

Elon seemed unconfident enough in Sam Altman's vision of a successful future for OpenAi to want to leave him in power.

Aside from Elon’s Twitter, which gives a marvelous window into seemingly thinking Elon is a normal person—which I would love to hope he is like you and me—his work ethic and drive for humanity’s safety are something we’ve never seen in a person.

This would suggest that on Elon’s great days, he is probably great to be around and very inspiring.

But like every normal human being, he has bad days, too. On a day when Elon goes against the grain, his behavior can seem measured at a level that most people are highly uncomfortable with.

I know Elon wasn’t thinking from a monetary place that he needs control. He’s the wealthiest man on the planet. I’m speculating that his stance comes from only believing in himself to achieve a task that resembles a possible success of 0%.

OpenAi x Elon
Closed Source: Was this the Plan All Along?

I would call myself an avid Elon Musk follower.

Finding this information was very frustrating.

Elon agreed, in emails dating back to the transition of more technology away from open-source shifting to closed-source as development continued.

Initially, the purposes needed for open source were specifically for recruitment. As OpenAi purged forward, they would redact availability, claiming that the open means people can benefit from the fruit of what OpenAi has created, not open source.

This contradicts what Elon claimed.

Ilya writes the initial email claiming that, for safety purposes, having all of our code open-sourced would not be beneficial, as it could mean catastrophic endings for someone with the hardware to house the software. He finishes the email by stating that as they move forward, they will become less open-source for protection.

Elon responds:

How far can a “yup” take you?

I know I’ve been keen on things being open source. Especially where we’re currently in the race for AGI, a lot of bad actors could really screw the fate of humanity quickly. To ensure that doesn't happen, having open-sourced projects is crucial.

Also from OpenAi’s stance, I don’t hate redacting the ability for open source as a bad actor could quickly get it in their hands and hurt humanity badly.

Is there a middle-ground option between totally open-source and totally closed-source?

OpenAi: AGI
Did OpenAi just confirm something?

This is the opening paragraph of the blog that about brought me to my knees.

OpenAi had something leaked in reference to a product called Q* (pronounced Q Star).

Rumors of ChatGPT5 are swirling for a release soon with an alleged IQ of 170 (currently ChatGPT4 is around 144)

Also, we can’t forget about Sora coming this summer.

All of these products make you think: Have they created Artificial General Intelligence? Many scientists before this stated that we were 5-10 years away.

What would make OpenAi feel so confident?

Was there a reason Sam was removed in Nov 2023 by the board? ~”What did they seeee”~

Wrap it up
In Conclusion

I’m sure we’ll see a response from Elon here shortly. As soon as we do, I’ll share it on my Twitter, and if there’s enough beef in the response, I’ll bring it to my newsletter.

Wild times we’re living in.

Until Tomorrow,

Zander