OpenAI backer Vinod Khosla on why all the executive departures may be a good thing, taking on Elon Musk, and fixing AI’s image problem

Vinod Khosla

Erin Beach

Khosla Ventures was the first investor in OpenAI when it switched to a “capped-profit” model in 2018.Khosla is concerned there is too much doom and gloom about AI from “Luddites.”Khosla is trying to change the narrative by publishing an essay on the broader benefits of AI.

Billionaire Vinod Khosla, 69, one of the most successful venture capitalists in Silicon Valley history, first blogged about the tremendous potential of AI in 2012. When OpenAI switched from a non-profit to a “capped-profit” company in 2018, he put his money where his mouth was when Khosla Ventures stepped forward with the first check.

Now, Khosla believes we are in a frothy “hype cycle” of AI, but one company he does not think is overhyped is OpenAI, which announced last week it raised $6.6 billion at a $157 billion valuation. While some notable earlier investors sat out this round, such as Sequoia Capital, sat out this round, Khosla Ventures doubled down.

“There’s plenty of companies in the public markets that have higher revenue multiples with much lower growth than OpenAI,” Khosla said during an interview this week. “It appears likely we will continue to have very, very rapid growth.”

Khosla says he is undaunted by the string of high-level departures at OpenAI, which include Mira Murati, chief technology officer, as well as three members of the founding team: Ilya Sutskever, Andrej Karpathy, and John Schulman.

“I think a number of people who left recently really want to start something of their own, but the organization is also being rationalized for agility and speed,” Khosla said. “Sam [Altman] is a big fan of speed. I’m a big fan of speed. I support him in that, and we should move to organizations that result in more speed. You’ve seen some competitors not have the same kind of speed.”

OpenAI has reportedly asked its investors not to back five companies it views as close competitors, including Safe Superintelligence, which Sutskever founded. However, Khosla says he would be open to backing the startups of OpenAI alums.

“Absolutely, we would back them if the plan was good,” Khosla said. “It depends on the plan.”

AI’s PR problem

Khosla is concerned there is too much doom and gloom about AI from “Luddites” and says we are not focusing enough on its upside for humanity.

“It definitely has a PR problem,” Khosla said. “People are afraid of it.”

Khosla is trying to change the narrative, recently publishing a 10,000-word essay on the broader societal benefits of AI, from reducing crime to eliminating the need for most menial labor.

“Most jobs today are not jobs, they’re servitude,” Khosla said. “You work on a farm in a hundred-degree heat for eight hours a day your whole life, or you work on the GM assembly line doing the same assembly job for eight hours a day for 30 or 40 years.”

Over the next 25 years, Khosla predicts AI will replace 80% of the work in 80% of jobs, from doctors to salespeople.

“If we can free humans from that servitude, then it’s a good thing,” Khosla said. “As long as we take care of their needs.”

Khosla thinks X has become like 4chan

Khosla has been a vocal opponent of Donald Trump, which has attracted the ire of Elon Musk on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Most people are too afraid to disagree with somebody like that,” Khosla said. “I guess I can’t get fired.”

Khosla credits Musk for having a positive impact on climate change by popularizing electric cars. But he is critical of the nastiness that has profiled X since Musk acquired it.

“Twitter is becoming like 4Chan,” Khosla said, referring to the anonymous message board that is known for being a haven for hate speech. “It’s not a place to dialogue with people. It’s a particular kind of extremist group of people.”