Mother Of Musk Twins Resigns From OpenAI: Is Elon Going After ChatGPT?

Shivon Zilis, director of operations at Elon Musk’s Neuralink, resigned from the board of OpenAI, the startup that is currently at the forefront of the AI frenzy with its release of the popular ChatGPT AI chatbot.

Zilis is an expert in AI, and is also the mother of twins fathered by Musk last year. Zilis was one of six board members at OpenAI, which included Adam D'Angelo, CEO of Quora, and other powerful executives. She first joined OpenAI as an advisor in 2016.

There's speculation that the recent dispute between Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman could be a reason for Zilis stepping down from the board.

Since 2018, Musk has been criticizing Altman and the AI startup for falling behind Google. The billionaire offered to take control of the company and run it himself, but Altman and OpenAI’s other founders rejected the proposal.

Musk eventually walked away from the company and reneged on a planned donation.

Did Zilis step down at Musk’s direction?

Musk has been approaching AI researchers in recent months to form a new research lab to develop an alternative to ChatGPT, according to a February report by The Information.

A significant conflict of interest would be born if Zilis — with her ties to Musk — stayed on the OpenAI board of directors, while presumably giving Musk a hand in developing a rival AI. Although it remains unclear whether Musk directed Zilis to step down from the OpenAI board.

Read also: Wait, How Many Kids Does Elon Musk Have?

Zilis began her career at IBM and then joined the venture capital fund Bloomberg Beta before moving on to OpenAI, Tesla, and then Neuralink.

OpenAI, which was co-founded by Musk in 2015, was initially a non-profit. Musk tweeted earlier this month that he had donated around $100 million to co-found the company.

With Zilis leaving, OpenAI loses an important board member with AI expertise, which could pose a challenge for the company as it faces increasing competition in the AI industry.

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