'He has some real superpowers': OpenAI's Sam Altman hails Elon Musk as 'talent magnet'

Elon Musk, who recently launched an AI startup to compete with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, and was a co-founder of the Artificial Intelligence startup, played a significant role in setting up systems in place during the company's inception.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in a podcast released last weekhighlighted Musk's magnetic ability to attract talent and attention, describing him as purportedly having unique superpowers.

"Elon was definitely a talent magnet and attention magnet, for sure, and also just like has some real superpowers that were super helpful to us in those early days, aside from all of those things," Altman told In Good Company podcast host Nicolai Tangen.

Altman’s remarks on Musk have not been consistent. In March, as per Fortune magazine, appearing forOn With Kara Swisher podcast, he said: "I mean, he's a jerk,whatever else you want to say about him—he has a style that is not a style that I’d want to have for myself.

Musk's move away from OpenAI

Musk's discontent with OpenAI's direction led him to launch xAI in July, positioning it as a competitor to Altman's company.

xAI's ambitious goal is to "understand the true nature of the universe," and Musk has assembled top AI talent from Google, DeepMind, Microsoft, and Tesla for this endeavour.

In 2018, Musk left OpenAI's board after offering to lead the organisation but being rebuffed, according to Semafor.

One of his grievances is that OpenAI transitioned from a nonprofit in 2015 to a "capped profit" model in 2019, coinciding with a substantial $1 billion investment from Microsoft.

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Musk's dissatisfaction with OpenAI became more evident this year as ChatGPT's launch led to a soaring company valuation. He criticised the shift from an open-source nonprofit to a closed-source, profit-driven entity controlled by Microsoft.

Altman defended the partnership with Microsoft, as did Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. However, Musk expressed concern that Microsoft's influence exceeded what OpenAI's leadership team recognised.

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