OpenAI co-founder responds to Musk’s huge overnight bid – and it’s not good news for tech mogul
OpenAI’s chief executive and co-founder has told Sky News that his platform is “not for sale” after a group led by Elon Musk launched an unsolicited $97.4bn (£78.7bn) bid overnight.
Sam Altman, who is attending the Paris AI Summit with world leaders, was asked whether he can still afford OpenAI after Mr Musk’s bid.
“The board will decide what to do there… the mission is really important and we’re totally focused on making sure we preserve that,” he told Sky’s science and technology editor Tom Clarke on Tuesday morning.
“The company is not for sale, neither is the mission,” he said.
Elon Musk has led a $97.4bn bid for the platform. File pic: AP
OpenAI is planning to transition to a for-profit company which Mr Musk has vehemently opposed. He has even launched legal action over it.
“It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” Mr Musk – who was also a co-founder of OpenAI – said in a statement on Monday. “We will make sure that happens.”
Mr Altman also said he would like to “work with China” although he doesn’t know if the US government would let him do that.
“Should we try as hard as we absolutely can [to work with them]? Yes,” he said.
What is the Paris AI Action Summit?
Chinese company DeepSeek sent shockwaves through the AI industry a fortnight ago, when it revealed a powerful AI model that was significantly cheaper than OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
US officials have raised security concerns about the company, however, and it is already banned on some government devices.
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Mr Altman was asked if he can reassure users that one of the fastest-growing generative AI platforms will continue to put safety at the forefront of what the company does.
He said his platform can be safer amid concerns that red tape around artificial intelligence will be resisted as businesses say it stifles innovation.
“Safety is integral to what we do… We’ve got to make these systems really safe for people, or people just won’t use them. It’s the same thing and we’ll work super hard on that,” said Mr Altman.
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Acknowledging that safety is not high on the summit’s agenda, he added: “That’s not actually the main thing that we’ve been hearing about – the main concern has been ‘can we make this cheaper, can you have more of it, can we get it better and more advanced’.”
But asked if OpenAI can look at all of those elements as well as safety, he added: “Yes, we can also do that.”
JD Vance delivers a speech during the plenary session of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit .
Pic: Reuters
It comes as US vice president JD Vance warned that “excessive regulation” would kill the rapidly growing AI industry.
“Now, at this moment, we face the extraordinary prospect of a new industrial revolution, one on par with the invention of the steam engine,” he said.
“But it will never come to pass if overregulation deters innovators from taking the risks necessary to advance the ball.”
In his first foreign trip as vice president, Mr Vance said President Trump’s administration will “ensure that AI systems developed in America are free from ideological bias”.
He said the United States would “never restrict our citizens’ right to free speech.”