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The Elon Effect: Did Musk’s Departure Catapult OpenAI’s ChatGPT to Surpass Google?
Uncovering the Speculative Connection Between Elon Musk’s Fallout and OpenAI’s Rise to AI Stardom
“OpenAI has become a closed source, maximum-profit company effectively controlled by Microsoft.” — Elon Musk
Elon Musk, the chief billionaire Star Man, and OpenAI co-founder was reportedly furious when ChatGPT made its splashy debut, igniting discussions about it being a threat to Google, according to Semafor’s Reed Albergotti. But could Musk’s departure from OpenAI be the very reason why the company was able to surpass Google to the market with ChatGPT? Let’s dive in and speculate.
Back in early 2018, Musk had disagreements with other OpenAI co-founders, including Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, who rejected his proposal to run the nonprofit company himself to beat Google. After stepping down from OpenAI’s board and pulling future funding, Musk watched as the company transitioned to a for-profit entity, eventually launching the generative AI chatbot ChatGPT to great fanfare, even causing Google to issue a “code red”.
As the relationship between Musk and OpenAI soured, the company turned to Microsoft for funding and resources. Semafor does not explicitly state that Musk’s withdrawal of funding pushed OpenAI into Microsoft’s arms, but…
