OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has stated that the company has no plans to go public, citing the “strange” structure of the company and the fact that some corporate decisions on artificial intelligence may not be in the interests of investors. Altman also expressed concerns about being sued by the stock market and Wall Street. OpenAI began as a non-profit company in 2015 before spinning out OpenAI LP in March 2019 as a for-profit subsidiary. The San Francisco-based company is allowed to raise external funds such as donations, from which the non-profit parent company must benefit. Microsoft and Elon Musk are among OpenAI’s largest sponsors.
Altman has recently criticized the planned EU regulation for artificial intelligence, warning against over-regulation and threatening to shut down the company’s AI chatbot, ChatGPT, in the EU if the regulations could not be met. However, Altman later stated that OpenAI had not threatened to leave the EU and was still waiting for more clarity on the EU AI law.
OpenAI, as the inventor and operator of ChatGPT and the large language model GPT-4, could be obliged to disclose the data used to train the AI under the current draft law. Altman is against regulations that restrict user access to the technology, and he believes that the presence of AI in the public is still in its infancy.
Altman also discussed the growth of AI, predicting that GPT-4 would look like a “little toy” in a few years as AI becomes more advanced. He believes that AI will encompass images, audio, video, text, and computer programming.
