OpenAI approached Anthropic about a possible merger of the two AI companies. Besides that, they also showed interest in the company’s CEO, now that OpenAI got itself into crisis.
OpenAI’s board of directors made some choices this past weekend that could be called exceptional, to say the least. After firing CEO Sam Altman, the company appeared to try to save itself by merging with competitor Anthropic. This reports Reuters based on two witnesses who had been briefed on these plans.
Proposal rejected
The question was reportedly addressed to Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei. In addition, he was also offered Altman’s vacant position. However, Amodei rejected both proposals.
The news has not been confirmed by OpenAI’s board of directors, they are probably too busy trying to keep the whole situation under control. But that seems to be a lot harder than they thought.
Also read: ‘OpenAI board is checkmated; Altman must return as CEO’
Anthropic sees opportunity in the AI market
Although a merger of the two companies in the past would have been a recipe for total dominance in the AI market, Anthropic will have had little appetite for the problems of OpenAI. In recent months, Anthropic managed to gain the trust of Google and Amazon, both of which came over with hefty investments. With things at OpenAI rapidly going downhill, the competitor probably sees an opportunity to become the leading AI company of the moment.