ChatGPT: OpenAi the research lab behind a viral chatbot that uses artificial intelligence to do basically anything a user requests is in talks with investors for a round that could value the company at $29 billion.
The valuation twice that of the last private round — would make OpenAi one of the most valuable startups in the US, although it hasn’t generated much revenue yet. According to the Wall Street Journal, which broke the news first-hand, the funding is being evaluated by venture capital managers, Thrive Capital and Founders Fund.
The two could essentially invest more than $300 million in the startup in a second round, causing an outflow for employees and investors. OpenAi is the company behind ChatGPT, a chatbot that uses artificial intelligence to mimic a human conversation based on users’ questions and requests, answering thousands of questions.
According to the company, “the dialogue format allows ChatGPT to answer follow-up questions, admit one’s mistakes, challenge false assumptions, and reject inappropriate requests.” The chatbot has become very popular due to its high-precision answers on a wide variety of topics.
It also responds to many different requests from users, e.g. B. writing a poem on a specific topic, writing a dissertation on a complex topic, or even simulating a conversation between two teenagers on any topic.
OpenAi also developed Dall E-2 which uses artificial intelligence to create hyper-realistic paintings and illustrations based on user requests. This type of tool gained notoriety after an AI-generated artwork won an art competition in Colorado. (In this case, the company was founded by a Dall E-2 competitor named Midjourney.)
OpenAi was founded in 2015 as a non-governmental organization dedicated to conducting research in the field of artificial intelligence that can benefit humanity. Originally, the foundation was funded by the likes of Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, founder of Linkedin, and Sam Altman, former CEO of Y Combinator.
The company underwent a related transformation in 2019 when Altman took over and formed a for-profit arm to raise money to fund the computing power needed to train its algorithms. OpenAi was one of the first companies in this market to decide to make their tools available to the general public.
Partly due to ethical concerns, Google has avoided bringing its own AI solutions onto the market. Although the OpenAi technology initially had more entertainment than practical use, industry experts believe that it could be a worthy alternative to existing search engines like Microsoft’s Google and Bing in the future.
No wonder Microsoft has already invested $1 billion in OpenAi and earned the right to be the partner of choice in bringing new technologies to market for services like Bing and Microsoft Design. According to WSJ, Microsoft will also be in advanced talks to increase its stake in the company.
OpenAi’s stated goal is to achieve what AI researchers call “artificial general intelligence” in the future, a technology capable of perfectly simulating human intelligence and skills.
Altmann has said in some interviews that OpenAi tools can change technology in the same way as the invention of smartphones.
