good question! I don't really know, but you can tell it isn't money; he admitted that himself anyway and reportedly he has no equity in openai[0].
my optimistic hypothesis is he really wants to control AGI because he believes he can make a more efficient use of it than other people. he might even be right and that's what scares me, because I don't trust his measures of efficiency.
I'd rather not let my pessimistic fantasies run wild here.
1) more money is not necessarily a goal for these people - it's what for they want more money and why they believe they can spend it better than everyone else (regardless if they truly can)
2) in a post-AGI world money may be an obsolete concept
A proxy yes. But not everyone leverages it that way. So it really depends. Some do just want to hoard as much as possible, others want to lobby, others want fame, others want legacy.
Money helps with all those, but will not passively do that stuff.
my optimistic hypothesis is he really wants to control AGI because he believes he can make a more efficient use of it than other people. he might even be right and that's what scares me, because I don't trust his measures of efficiency.
I'd rather not let my pessimistic fantasies run wild here.
[0] https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/24/openai-ceo-sam-altman-didnt-...