The New York Times on Thursday published a look at the “fraying” relationship between OpenAI and its investor, partner, and, increasingly, rival, Microsoft, reporting their five-year romance has cooled owing to financial pressure on OpenAI, the amount of computing power Microsoft is providing OpenAI, and disagreements between the two about ground rules.
Most fascinating perhaps is a clause in OpenAI’s contract with Microsoft that reportedly cuts off Microsoft’s access to OpenAI’s tech if the latter develops so-called artificial general intelligence (AGI), meaning an AI system capable of rivaling human thinking.
According to the Times — which says it talked with 19 people familiar with the companies’ relationship — the clause aims to ensure Microsoft can never misuse the technology. Thing is, OpenAI’s board can reportedly decide when AGI has arrived, and CEO Sam Altman has already said that moment will be somewhat subjective. As he told this editor early last year, “The closer we get, the harder time I have answering [how far away AGI is] because I think that it’s going to be much blurrier, and much more of a gradual transition than people think.”
