New York: President-elect Donald Trump may emerge as the “president of this AI generation”, taking office during a critical period in the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI), according to OpenAI’s Chief Financial Officer, Sarah Friar.
“He’s going to be right there at the beginning of it, maybe even as things like AGI, we get there,” Friar remarked during an interview at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York on Tuesday. She referred to AGI as autonomous systems capable of outperforming humans in most economically valuable tasks.
Friar addressed Elon Musk’s public criticisms of OpenAI, downplaying their significance. “We trust him…as a competitor, (he) will put first the national interest and compete appropriately,” she stated in response to questions from Reuters Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni.
Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI, has been vocal about his opposition to the company’s restructuring, which reduced the influence of its nonprofit board. Currently leading OpenAI rival xAI, Musk is a key figure in Trump’s transition team and was recently appointed to a task force alongside entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to focus on reducing government spending and regulations.
New Innovations at OpenAI
Friar, who joined OpenAI six months ago after leading social media company Nextdoor, highlighted the overwhelming demand for OpenAI’s new video generation tool, Sora, launched earlier this week. The surge in interest has led to a temporary suspension of account creation, with Friar emphasizing a cautious rollout.
“Some of it is just we need capacity, but a lot of it is also we want to be measured…it’s only available to a very small selection of people today, because we want to listen and learn,” Friar explained. The company is adopting a more deliberate approach to Sora’s release compared to its rollout of ChatGPT.
“There are places where we will go a little slower to make sure that we are constantly moving safety first as well,” she added.
OpenAI is also preparing to introduce more AI agent products in the coming year. These autonomous software programs are designed to handle daily tasks and are expected to exhibit significant advancements in reasoning capabilities.
“I think we are going to see a lot of motion next year around agents, and I think people are going to be surprised at how fast this technology comes at us,” Friar predicted.
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Strengthening Industry Ties
OpenAI continues to deepen its partnership with Microsoft, its largest investor and key tech collaborator. Friar noted that the relationship emphasizes mutual growth and diversification to bolster the entire AI industry.
“We think about it … in terms of helping each other grow, but also recognizing that diversification is a good thing as well, in terms of growing the whole industry,” she said.
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Despite controversies over its governance restructuring and a wave of executive departures, OpenAI remains on a strong growth trajectory. The company reported a “re-acceleration” in ChatGPT user numbers, which surged from 200 million weekly active users in August to 300 million, partly driven by the launch of new reasoning models like o1.
