Jeffrey Hinton, known as the “Godfather of AI,” has expressed support for Elon Musk's legal battle against Sam Altman's OpenAI over its transition from nonprofit to for-profit status.
business insider report Renowned AI pioneer and Nobel Prize winner Jeffrey Hinton has announced his support for Elon Musk's ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI. Musk, the co-founder of OpenAI, sought an injunction last month to prevent the company from transitioning from a nonprofit research organization to a for-profit company.
Hinton, known as the “godfather of AI” for his groundbreaking work on neural networks, made the statement through Encode, a youth-led, human-centered AI advocacy organization. In a statement, Hinton criticized OpenAI's decision to relinquish its nonprofit status, saying, “OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit organization explicitly focused on safety and has no safety-related commitments within its charter. We made various promises.” Being a nonprofit, we receive tax and many other benefits. Allowing them to all be destroyed when it becomes inconvenient would send a very bad message to other actors in the ecosystem. ”
OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit research organization with a mission to ensure that artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. But the company has recently taken steps to become a for-profit company, raising concerns among some of its co-founders, including Musk.
Musk's legal team sued OpenAI in February, accusing it of violating its nonprofit mission by partnering with Microsoft. Musk briefly dropped the case in June, but filed again in August, with his lawyers alleging that OpenAI executives had “conned” him by exploiting his concerns about AI's existential risks. He claimed to have co-founded the company.
Encode, the advocacy group that issued Hinton's statement, also filed a court brief supporting Musk's efforts. Adam Biren, vice president of public policy at Encode, emphasized the importance of public engagement in shaping the future of AI technology, saying, “From the beginning, OpenAI's mission has been to explain its technology to the public. The company's decision to abandon its mission in favor of profit is why public involvement is essential in shaping the future of this innovative technology. I am emphasizing that.
This isn't the first time Hinton has voiced criticism of OpenAI. In October, at a press conference after winning the Nobel Prize, Hinton said that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was “much more concerned about safety than profits” and described the situation. He said it was “unfortunate.”
OpenAI recently completed a $6.6 billion funding round, valuing the company at $157 billion. The company's rapid growth and success, particularly with its ChatGPT language model, has raised questions about the balance between the pursuit of technological advancement and the need for responsible AI development.
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Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering free speech and online censorship issues.
