Zuckerberg Says Sam Altman 'Deserves A Lot Of Credit,' But Highlights The Irony In His Firm Named OpenAI Leading Closed AI Models

In an interview published on Tuesday, Meta Platforms, Inc. META CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed his admiration for Sam Altman while also pointing out an irony in his company, OpenAI’s approach to AI development.

What Happened: Zuckerberg acknowledged Altman’s significant contributions to OpenAI’s development saying, “He deserves a lot of credit for how that organization has developed.” 

He also empathized with Altman’s experience of public scrutiny, stating, “When you’re going through it for the first time, you don’t handle it as perfectly as you would like. But I think he’s handling it very gracefully. I think he’s doing better than I did.”

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However, the Meta CEO also pointed out an apparent contradiction in OpenAI’s approach. He found it “somewhat ironic” that a company named OpenAI is leading in building closed AI models. Zuckerberg said, “It’s not necessarily bad, but it’s kind of a little funny.”

Mark Zuckerberg says Sam Altman deserves a lot of credit for his leadership of OpenAI but "it's a somewhat ironic thing" to have a company named OpenAI being the leader in building closed AI models pic.twitter.com/U703IPIkmW

— Tsarathustra (@tsarnick) July 23, 2024

Last year in December, Yann LeCun, Meta’s chief AI scientist, also said that he believes open-source AI models will eventually surpass proprietary ones.

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Why It Matters: Zuckerberg previously also commented on Altman’s work. Earlier this year, he described Altman’s plan to raise $7 trillion for AI chipmaking infrastructure as “astronomical,” but necessary for the future of AI.

ChatGPT-parent’s shift from an open-source model to a closed-source structure has been a point of contention in the tech industry. Elon Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI, who left the startup in 2018 over some differences, has been vocal about his disapproval of this transition.

He has repeatedly voiced concerns about the direction OpenAI is heading, especially regarding its partnership with Microsoft Corporation. In March this year, Musk also announced that his AI startup, xAI, will open source the code of its AI chatbot Grok.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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