Founding OpenAI and AI Ethics

Yeah. Well,

just going back to OpenAI for a second.

Um,

the reason I founded

OpenAI was because I was concerned, based on my conversations

with Larry Page, who used to be a close friend of mine,

um, that he was not sufficiently concerned

about the dangers of AI.

Um, this really came to a head

when at my birthday party,

uh, he, in front of a large group of people,

called me a

specist,

um,

for favoring humanity over computers.

Uh, that-- I found that troubling.

Um, I was like, "Larry, uh, what side are you on?"

"Um, it sounds like you're on like side of the

computers,

uh, but you really need to be on team humanity

here, you know."

Um,

so,

uh, after that, I was like, "Okay, this is it.

We gotta have some counterbalance to, uh, Google, um,

because Larry doesn't seem to care if humans make it or not."

Um,

so I, I thought, what's the opposite of Google?

It would be an open source nonprofit,

and that's where the word open in OpenAI comes from. It, it means open source.

And, and I, I provided

I provided all the money beginning, um,

like one of the series A, B, C rounds and,

uh, recruited the key people like Ilya

Sutskever

and, um,

taught them everything I know

and, uh,

you know.

I, I actually even got them the deal with

Microsoft with, with Satya initially to

g- I got Satya to donate some time from

Azure.

Um,

and for all that, I did not

seek any

financial reward whatsoever.

Um,

the, the... And, and the reason I actually turned down the

offer for shares is

because, I mean, I, I felt like, what are you... Shares in what?

Like, nonprofits aren't supposed to have shares,

at least last time I

checked.

Um, you know, they're not based...

Nonprofits are not supposed to be a vehicle for self-enrichment.

Uh, so that's why I turned down the offer of

shares because it, it didn't

seem morally or legally defensible.

Um-