'A jerk on Twitter': ChatGPT maker Sam Altman reveals what he thinks about Elon Musk

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the man behind revolutionary technologies like ChatGPT, DALL-E spoke his mind about Elon Musk during an almost 2-hour-30-minute podcast. Altman was clear that he thinks Elon Musk is being a 'jerk on Twitter' but he also claimed that he empathises with the billionaire in a lot of instances. Altman revealed that just like Musk, he's also worried about the safety aspect of artificial generative intelligence. 

On the Lex Fridman podcast, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman answered some pressing questions about the GPT-4 and ChatGPT. He also reacted to Elon Musk's tweets about OpenAI and its association with Microsoft.

Altman said, "Elon is obviously attacking us on Twitter right now on a few different vectors, and I have empathy because I believe he is, understandably so, really stressed about AGI safety. I'm sure there are some other motivations going on too, but that's definitely one of them."

Musk has, in the past, questioned how OpenAI went from a non-profit to a for-profit organisation. He claimed that he "donated the first $100 million" when it was a non-profit. Musk also expressed his skepticism about OpenAI's association with Microsoft claiming that the software giant has exclusive access to the entire OpenAI codebase. He claimed that when "push comes to shove, they [Microsoft] have everything, including the model weights."

Also read: Elon Musk tried to take over ChatGPT maker OpenAI in 2018

What Sam Altman and Elon Musk have in Common

Altman admitted that he understands why Musk might be stressed about artificial general intelligence (AGI) safety, but said that there could be other motivations behind his recent Twitter attacks. To draw a comparison, Altman explained that Musk was also attacked by early pioneers in space travel industry, and he was visibly hurt by it. Altman claimed that Musk is the kind of hero he grew up idolising.  

Altman believes that despite Musk's behavior on social media, he has driven the world forward in important ways. He cited Musk's contributions to the electric vehicle and space industries as examples of how he has made a positive impact on the world.

While acknowledging that Musk can be funny and warm in person, Altman urged him to focus more on the hard work that needs to be done to ensure AGI safety.

During the Lex Fridman Podcast, Altman also spoke about Satya Nadella and his leadership at Microsoft. He categorically stated that he is a "fan of Satya." He believes that Micrsoft CEO Satya Nadella is one of the very few people who are good at both leadership and management. 

Microsoft invested $10 billion in OpenAI ahead of the launch of it's AI-based products such as Bing AI chatbot, Copilot, and others. 

Also read: Elon Musk's Twitter faces another challenge as its source code leaks online