Beijing time, on the evening of December 9, news came that last Friday, OpenAI launched a special 12-day event called "Shipmas", expected to release a series of exciting products, including the text-to-video tool Sora and emotional ChatGPT. However, at the same time, with Donald Trump's plan to appoint former PayPal COO David Sacks as the "AI Czar", OpenAI CEO Sam Altman may soon find himself facing two major rivals.

The "Musk-Sacks" duo has publicly criticized OpenAI and has a considerable amount of controversial history among Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

Of course, Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman nine years ago, but left after a power struggle and has since founded OpenAI's competitor xAI. Musk has also initiated several lawsuits against OpenAI and Altman, with the latest aimed at preventing OpenAI from transitioning from a nonprofit to a fully profit-oriented enterprise.

As Musk's friend and planning to work alongside Musk in the new government, Sacks' venture capital firm Craft Ventures has invested an undisclosed amount of money in Musk's xAI. Sacks is not shy about expressing his contempt for some of OpenAI's recent initiatives; he stated in a podcast last month that OpenAI has "transformed from a nonprofit charity into a 'piranha' profit-seeking company."

Attacks on OpenAI from the left and right?

What can the "Musk-Sacks" duo do to harm competitors like OpenAI?

Theoretically, these two new billionaire advisors to Trump could leverage their positions and influence to direct government AI contracts towards their companies and push the government to crack down on competitors like OpenAI. Besides the title of "AI and Digital Cryptos Czar," Sacks will also lead the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), which advises the president and the White House on science, technology, and innovation policy.

Meanwhile, Richard Schoenstein, Vice Chairman of Litigation at Tarter Krinsky & Drogin Law Firm, stated that Musk could use his new DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) role to broadly eliminate the governmental barriers facing xAI or AI. Schoenstein believes Musk's dual role as a businessman and advisor to Trump is a "dangerous combination."

It's no wonder that Altman is trying to win favor with Musk. At last week's New York Times DealBook summit, Altman expressed that he was "very unhappy" about the strained relationship with Musk, and dismissed the suggestion that Musk might use political power to harm competitors and benefit his own businesses. He stated that Musk would not utilize his influence in Trump's new government to harm competitors and emphasized that such behavior is very much against the spirit of the USA.

Last Friday, when Trump appointed Sachs as the "AI Tsar," Altman quickly released a congratulatory message on social platform X.

However, if the intention was to openly express goodwill, it would have the opposite effect, only further confirming Altman's dilemma. In response, Musk reacted to Altman's tweet with a laughing emoji.

A Subtle Moment for OpenAI

All of this is happening at a subtle moment for OpenAI. Currently valued at 157 billion dollars, OpenAI is not only devising a plan to restructure itself into a for-profit company that is not controlled by a nonprofit Board of Directors; it is also reportedly seeking to obtain more investment by removing AGI restriction clauses with Microsoft. With an investment of 13 billion dollars, Microsoft is currently the largest shareholder of OpenAI.

According to current terms, when OpenAI achieves AGI, Microsoft will not gain access to the technology, which was intended to ensure that Microsoft never misuses that technology. However, this constraint has also become a stumbling block to deepening cooperation between the two parties. Multiple insiders revealed last Friday that OpenAI is considering removing this provision from its company structure, allowing it to continue gaining investment from Microsoft after AGI is achieved.

Furthermore, by removing this clause and transforming OpenAI into a for-profit business, Altman may acquire a substantial equity stake in OpenAI. Currently, Altman does not hold any equity in OpenAI.

The technical challenges that need to be overcome to achieve AGI are enormous. However, as OpenAI advances its mission, the role of government regulation will become increasingly important. In this regard, Sachs and Musk have made some conflicting comments, making it difficult to predict what kind of policies they might implement under the Trump administration.

For example, it has been reported that Sachs deleted some of his past tweets in which he expressed approval for accelerating technological progress but also found OpenAI's announced mission to create AGI "disturbing." Sachs said, "If OpenAI cannot continuously disclose its explicit intent to create AGI, I doubt it will face a lot of scrutiny regarding AI safety. This is a positive aspect regarding its mission to create quality products for humanity. But concerning its actual likelihood of success, this is concerning."

As for Musk, he often expresses concerns about AGI falling into the wrong hands and predicted earlier this year that AI could surpass human intelligence by the end of 2025. In March 2023, he signed an open letter calling for a six-month pause on the development of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 and warned of their "profound risks to society and humanity."

AI scientist Max Tegmark, who wrote the open letter, recently praised Musk's potential influence on Trump, implying that this could lead to stricter AI safety standards. This means that Musk might take measures to slow OpenAI's advance toward AGI, especially since Musk also supported the failed California SB-1047 bill aimed at regulating the development and use of the most powerful AI models.

On the other hand, Altman may also benefit from Sachs' views on accelerating AI development and loosening restrictions. For example, many predict that Trump will repeal President Biden's AI executive order from October 2023. If looking for signs from Sachs' tweets, the days of the AI executive order might be numbered.

When the AI executive order was announced, Sachs wrote on X: "The political and financial state of the USA is irretrievably collapsing, but as a nation, we have an unparalleled Asset: AI cutting-edge innovation driven by a completely free and unregulated software development market. But with the release of the executive order, that is no longer the case."