Musk Wanted ‘Absolute Control’ Of OpenAI

Today’s Menu 🥠

OpenAI Claps Back At Elon’s Claims
Perplexity’s Way To Unicorn Status
5 Trending AI-Powered Tools
Post-Battle Selfies With The Boys

Fast Snacks 🥡

Exodigo Raises $105M To Make Underground Maps
An AI startup that makes maps for utility, transport, and construction firms finalizes Series A funding round…

Glean Grabs $200M At $2B Valuation
This AI-powered work assistant and enterprise search startup lock up more than $200M in Series D…

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Elon Musk Wanted ‘Absolute Control’ Of OpenAI

Pulling a single thread can soon uncovered a large web of deception.

One day after facing public heat for allegedly aiming to build their platform for profit, OpenAI released a blog post stating that Elon Musk was actually the one who wanted to make the company for-profit.

They even posted copies of emails dating back to 2015 to corroborate their claims and concluded with a heartwarming message about their mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity.

The gist:

Back when they started, OpenAI and Elon Musk shared the goal of ensuring Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) benefits everyone, and to do so, they needed funding.

Initially, they aimed for $100 million, but Elon suggested they bump it up to $1 billion to garner more public backing, playing on perception. As it turns out, building AGI requires way more resources than they initially thought (no surprise there).

They claim Musk believed a for-profit model with more control was necessary to achieve their mission. They even discussed merging OpenAI with Tesla, but they couldn’t agree on leadership.

Unable to find common ground, Musk left OpenAI and even filed a lawsuit against them.

But is it true?

It’s hard to say – the blog post feels like someone wanting to win an argument by only presenting evidence that supports their claim, and it’s easy to cherry-pick evidence to make a case.

The fact that they posted this shows they were feeling the pressure, and to me, seems sus.

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Perplexity To Become Latest AI Unicorn

Perplexity AI is on the brink of securing a funding round that will elevate its valuation to the coveted unicorn status of approximately $1 billion.

A significant leap from its previous valuation of $520 million, achieved just two months ago through a $73.6 million Series B round led by IVP, with contributions from notable entities like Nvidia and Jeff Bezos.

Investors seem to have burgeoning confidence in AI technologies with other unicorns like Lambda, an AI cloud computing firm based in San Jose, California, recently closed a $320 million Series C, reaching a $1.5 billion valuation.

Similarly, conversational AI company Sierra, based in San Francisco, secured $110 million, approaching a $1 billion valuation. Moreover, China’s Moonshot AI made headlines with a funding round surpassing $1 billion, backed by Alibaba Group Holding and HongShan.

Perplexity AI having reportedly crossed $10 million in annual revenue, is distinguished by its ambitious aim to rival Google’s search dominance by offering a user-friendly query interface on its website, delivering AI-generated responses devoid of the clutter typical of ads, paid spots, and SEO-driven content.

Perplexity’s journey from a promising newcomer to a potential Google competitor shows AI advancements are continually reshaping market expectations and investment trends.