'His understanding of AI was limited, still is': Elon Musk lobs an insult at Bill Gates

In a clear attack on Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his knowledge of artificial intelligence, Twitter CEO Elon Musk alleged that Bill Gates' knowledge of AI is limited. His comments came in response to a Twitter user's post regarding Gates' involvement in OpenAI and his overall bullish attitude towards AI. Notably, OpenAI has been in the news recently after the release of GPT-4

Elon Musk, in response to a post saying Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates is bullish on AI, said, "I remember the early meetings with Gates. His understanding of AI was limited. Still is."

I remember the early meetings with Gates. His understanding of AI was limited. Still is.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

Earlier this month, in a blog post, Gates wrote about how AI could transform the workforce, healthcare, and education. He said that OpenAI's model GPT is the only technology that struck him as revolutionary since 1980 when he first saw a graphical user interface. “I’ve been in constant contact with the OpenAI team since 2016, most recently in September of last year,” he wrote. 

Notably, Elon Musk was an early investor in ChatGPT's parent company OpenAI and is credited as a co-founder. He left the company's board in 2018, citing a conflict of interest with his work at Tesla. However, certain reports suggest that Musk attempted to directly oversee the company's operations in 2018, but was rejected by fellow co-founders including current CEO Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, who is now president of the company. 

ChatGPT CEO Castigates Elon Musk For Criticising Firm

On Monday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman hit back at the incessant criticism that ChatGPT has received from its former funder Elon Musk. In an episode of “On With Kara Swisher” podcast on Thursday, Altman called the Tesla CEO a "jerk" after the latter tweeted earlier in February that OpenAI had gone from a non-profit company to a maximum-profit one.

“OpenAI was created as an open source (which is why I named it “Open” AI), a non-profit company to serve as a counterweight to Google, but now it has become a closed source, the maximum-profit company effectively controlled by Microsoft. Not what I intended at all,” he wrote.