With the introduction of ChatGPT, artificial intelligence (AI) models have entered various aspects of life. However, they do not meet the expectations of their creators regarding what is known as Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), especially from a financial perspective. Confidential documents reveal an agreement between OpenAI, a non-profit organization, and its investor and business partner Microsoft. According to these documents, both companies would consider an AI model from OpenAI as “Artificial General Intelligence” once it achieves a profit mark of 100 billion dollars.
AGI is a theoretical, advanced form of artificial intelligence. Microsoft and OpenAI have provided definitions on their websites even before these revelations. OpenAI describes AGI as “highly autonomous systems that outperform humans in most economically valuable tasks.” According to Microsoft, AGI would be “capable of performing a wide variety of tasks at or above human level” and represents “the next logical step after current AI technologies like Copilot, which can already perform a broad range of tasks such as text creation, image generation, data analysis, and much more.” There are various opinions on when exactly these conditions are considered fulfilled by a technology, as well as on how much the future might actually be shaped by AGI usage.
OpenAI’s definition of AGI is particularly significant. According to research by the news portal The Information, both companies agreed in 2023 that they would understand an AI model from OpenAI as an AGI model once it generates at least 100 billion dollars in profit. Moreover, according to the contract with OpenAI, Microsoft loses access to the startup’s technologies once the status of Artificial General Intelligence is achieved. This clause is intended to prevent potential misuse of AGI technology by Microsoft.
However, OpenAI is far from achieving a 100 billion-dollar profit. The tech startup is expected to incur a loss of around five billion dollars in 2024. In a funding round, the tech startup, which still operates as a non-profit organization, received fresh capital from investors like Microsoft, Nvidia, and others. This funding is contingent upon OpenAI transforming into a for-profit organization. On Friday, OpenAI announced its intention to become a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC).
Microsoft and OpenAI are also business partners. Microsoft provides the AI developer with the necessary computing power, while ChatGPT is a component of Microsoft’s own AI application, Copilot. Recently, there have been media reports that Microsoft is attempting to utilize other companies’ AI models for its applications.
If OpenAI truly needs to achieve a 100 billion-dollar profit to be released from Microsoft’s access, it could take some time before OpenAI presents a genuine AGI model. On the other hand, Microsoft might, in the medium to long term, enhance its AI applications with something equivalent to an AGI model, but it may not be officially labeled as such due to financial reasons.