OpenAI on the Future of AI with Trump

By Krystal Hu

President-elect Trump and AI

NEW YORK (Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump could be the "president of this AI generation" as he will take office at a time when critical infrastructure for developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) is being established, according to OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar.

> "He's going to be right there at the beginning of it, maybe even as we reach the AGI stage," she stated on Tuesday, referring to autonomous systems that surpass humans in many economically valuable tasks.

Musk's Threats

Friar also downplayed public threats to the ChatGPT maker from Elon Musk, one of Trump's close advisers. In an interview at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York, she stated about Musk's threats: "We trust him…as a competitor, (he) will prioritize national interest and compete appropriately."

Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI, has opposed the organization’s restructuring to reduce control of its nonprofit board. He currently operates xAI, a competitor to OpenAI, and has joined Trump’s transition team as a close adviser.

Government Task Force

Trump has appointed Musk, alongside former Republican presidential candidate and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, to lead a task force aimed at reducing government spending and regulations.

New Product Demand

Friar, who recently joined OpenAI as its first chief financial officer after leading social media firm Nextdoor, noted significant demand for the company's new video generation tool, Sora, which launched this week. Account creation for Sora has been suspended since its release, with Friar not providing a specific timeline for the resumption.

> "Some of it is just we need capacity, but largely, we want to be measured…it's currently accessible to a very small group of users, as we want to listen and learn," she explained, emphasizing a more cautious release strategy compared to ChatGPT.

Upcoming AI Products

In addition to video generation, Friar anticipates more AI agent products—software programs that autonomously perform tasks for users—will be released in the new year, which should include enhanced reasoning capabilities in foundation models.

> "I think we are going to see a lot of movement next year around agents, and I believe people will be amazed at the speed of technological advancements," she said.

Partnerships and Growth

The rapidly expanding startup is also working on building a new dynamic with its primary investor and tech partner, Microsoft. Friar remarked:

> "We focus on helping each other grow while recognizing that diversification is beneficial for the overall industry."

Despite governance restructuring controversies and an executive exodus, OpenAI continues to grow rapidly. Friar noted a "re-acceleration" in ChatGPT user growth, which surged to 300 million weekly active users from 200 million in August, crediting the increase to new reasoning models like o1.