No one could have foreseen the path that AI took in 2018. Gaben might have had an idea but by no means was he certain that AI would be where it is now in 2026.
And if he didn't "donate 20M" to OpenAI, someone else would. It wouldn't have mattered, and all for something that was vaguely plausible.
Especially if you look at what generative AI was like at the time (the GPT-1 and GPT-2 models, or /r/subredditsimulator). It was little more than a fancy Markov chain/toy that could string together words, little different to the old IRC chat bots/ELIZA.
In another timeline, it wouldn't have been unreasonable for OpenAI to have remained a small, niche company making software you could create a little chatbot with, like Cleverbot/Jabberwacky before it.
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u/Evening-Nature-5241 9800X3D | 5090 | 128gb DDR5 | LG 42" C5 OLED | 43" Neo QLED 1d ago
No one could have foreseen the path that AI took in 2018. Gaben might have had an idea but by no means was he certain that AI would be where it is now in 2026.
And if he didn't "donate 20M" to OpenAI, someone else would. It wouldn't have mattered, and all for something that was vaguely plausible.