Artificial intelligence is advancing at an unprecedented pace, a fact that concerns some of the world's brightest minds. In an effort to help deter the likelihood of robots becoming self-aware and taking over humanity as depicted in countless Hollywood movies, several tech luminaries have joined forces to create OpenAI.
As explained on Medium, OpenAI is a nonprofit funded by the likes of Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, Jessica Livingston, Peter Thiel and Amazon Web Services, just to name a few. Collectively, they're pledging more than a billion dollars to counteract large companies or even governments that might gain too much power in the field of artificial intelligence.
Sam Altman, Y Combinator CEO and OpenAI funder, acknowledges that companies leading the way in AI research such as Google currently share much of their research. But as we inch closer to reaching a level where AI surpasses human intelligence, Altman says there is concern over how much those companies will continue to divulge.
As such, OpenAI promises to make its results public and will offer its patents royalty-free.
Of those involved, entrepreneur Elon Musk has perhaps been the most outspoken regarding his fears of an AI-dominated future. Rather than simply helping fund the nonprofit, Musk said he plans to spend time with the team - perhaps an afternoon every week or so - to see where things stand, offer feedback and so on. Musk added that he is personally going to be super conscious of safety as it's something he is quite concerned about.
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