OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT, has been in the headlines since the release of ChatGPT and its partnership with Microsoft. Founded in 2015, OpenAI is valued at $30 billion after 8 years.
But why was OpenAI founded back in 2015? How did it end up introducing the concept of GPT? And what is it up to now?
Let’s go through its timeline of growing years.
The Core Concept Of OpenAI
Back in Dec 2015, Sam Altman and Elon Musk along with other group members shared their opinions on artificial intelligence. While the intention was to develop safe and beneficial AI tools, Sam and Elon also shared concerns and threats that AI could bring.
OpenAI was announced as a nonprofit research organization that aims to research artificial intelligence for human benefit. There started the time of initial growth and ideas.
The Initial Base [2016-17]
In the summer of 2016, OpenAI launched a public beta of “OpenAI Gym” which was a reinforcement learning research platform. Then, the company released a software platform called “Universe” to measure and train an AI’s general intelligence across games, websites, and other applications.
These two initial tools were test beds to train AI agents. Later, the company spent $7.9 million on cloud computing alone in 2017.
Pivot & Growth [2018-19]
Introducing the “Concept of GPT”
In 2018, OpenAI released a paper, “Improving Language Understanding by Generative Pre-Training.” The paper was to introduce the concept of GPT [Generative Pre-trained Transformer]. OpenAI developed the first language model, GPT-1 within the same year.
Elon Musk resigned
Soon after, Elon resigned from the organization after being rejected for taking the lead. However, Musk cited a potential future conflict [of interest] with his role as CEO of Tesla for resignation.
OpenAI transitioned into a for-profit model
Then in 2019, OpenAI transitioned into a “capped” for-profit subsidiary corporation, OpenAI L.P., with the profit capped at 100x any investment. The new capped-profit model allowed OpenAI LP to legally attract investments and grant employees stakes in the company.
The company was required to publicly disclose the compensation of top employees, before the transition. So, OpenAI distributed equity to its employees. During the same, the company partnered with Microsoft and announced an investment of $1 billion. Ever since OpenAI’s systems run on an Azure-based supercomputing platform from Microsoft.
GPT-3, DALL-E, & ChatGPT
GPT-3 language model
OpenAI released GPT-3, the third language model trained on large internet datasets. GPT-3 was aimed at natural language answering of questions, similar to ChatGPT, that allows it to generate improvised texts.
Additionally, the company also announced an associated API, called “the API” that later helped form the core of ChatGPT.
DALL-E, an AI image generator
In 2021, the company launched a deep-learning AI image generator, namely “DALL-E.” The tool could generate high-quality digital images from textual descriptions.
Later in September 2022, DALL-E 2 was released, preceding the qualities of its earlier version. DALL-E 2 could create more realistic and accurate images with a 4 times higher resolution.
ChatGPT’s Release
ChatGPT’s release in late November 2022 was followed by widespread media coverage. The chatbot came out based on GPT-3.5 with a free preview. According to OpenAI, the free version reviewed over 1 million sign-ups within the first five days.
Later in March 2023, OpenAI launched its GPT-4 model, that is, a paid subscription model of ChatGPT. The upgraded version is also known as “ChatGPT Plus.”
Read more: What is a Generative AI?
Microsoft’s Partnership With OpenAI
Microsoft’s Investment
On January 23, 2023, Microsoft confirmed a new $10 billion investment in OpenAI. The investment would value the company at $29 billion, double its value in 2021. In addition, rumors suggested that Microsoft may receive 75% of the company’s profits until the whole investment is returned along with a 49% stake in OpenAI.
Bing Search Engine integrated with ChatGPT
The investment is also rumored to be a part of Microsoft’s plan to integrate ChatGPT into the Bing search engine. It’s because not soon enough, Google announced its AI chatbot called “Bard,” fearing ChatGPT threat to the search engine.
Confirming the rumors on 7th Feb, Microsoft announced that it’s building AI technology based on the same foundation as ChatGPT. These AI-based products included Microsoft Bing, Edge, Microsoft 365, and others.
Superintelligence within a decade
In May 2023, OpenAI posted recommendations for the governance of superintelligence, considering it could happen within the next 10 years. According to the researchers, the high-level AI will allow a “dramatically more prosperous future” and a possibility of existential risk. Hence, we can’t just be reactive.
The company also proposed creating an international watchdog organization, similar to IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) to oversee AI systems.
Final Words
OpenAI started as a research-based organization, working on the concepts of artificial intelligence. Since then, the company has released several AI tools including DALL-E, Whisper, ChatGPT, GPT-4, and APIs.
However, it’s up to superintelligence as the next stop after almost a decade now. We’ll see what the next 10 years bring us — scary times!
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