Benzinga - by Rounak Jain, Benzinga Staff Writer.
Venture capitalists Vinod Khosla and Marc Andreessen have slammed each other over tech billionaire Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman.
What Happened: Khosla, an early OpenAI investor, questioned Andreessen over his stance on open-sourcing critical technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), saying it is crucial to guard it for national security.
"We are in a tech economic war with China and AI that is a must win. This is exactly what patriotism is about, not slogans."
Khosla was responding to Andreessen's allegation that he is "lobbying to ban open source."
He went a step further and compared AI to The Manhattan Project – this was a crucial development project that was undertaken during World War II to be the first to produce nuclear weapons.
The U.S. led the project in collaboration with the U.K. It was successful and helped ensure a victory for the Allies.
Khosla is likening it to the ongoing war for dominance in AI, but this time around, it's not the Axis that is on the other side – the venture capitalist thinks the U.S. is in a war with China.
"And @pmarca would you open source the Manhattan project? This one is more serious for national security."
And @pmarca would you open source the manhattan project? This one is more serious for national security. We are in a tech economic war with China and AI that is a must win. This is exactly what patriotism is about, not slogans. https://t.co/AN18VmgVdk— Vinod Khosla (@vkhosla) March 2, 2024
Why It Matters: At the crux of this quarrel is Khosla's support for OpenAI and Altman. He called out Musk's lawsuit as a "massive distraction" and reinforced his belief in Altman and his team.
"Even with all these hurdles, especially given this week, Sam, Greg and team have pushed out better products faster than anyone in AI."
We have known @sama since the early days of @OpenAI and fully support him and the company. These lawsuits are a massive distraction from the goals of getting to AGI and its benefits. Yet, even with all these hurdles, especially given this week, Sam, Greg and team have pushed…— Vinod Khosla (@vkhosla) March 2, 2024
To recall, Musk sued OpenAI and Altman for their "stark betrayal" of the AI startup’s ‘Founding Agreement'.
He also alleged that OpenAI is "refining AGI" to maximize profits for its biggest investor, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT).
Instead, Musk wants OpenAI to return to its open-source roots and for courts to prevent Microsoft from using GPT-4, Q*, and other future-generation large language models.
Musk has been vocal about his disapproval of OpenAI and Altman – he left the company in 2018, merely three years after Altman said he thinks Musk would prove to be "really helpful" to recruit and attract talent to OpenAI.
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