On December 6, US President-elect Trump announced on social platforms that David Sacks, former chief operating officer of PayPal, would join the Trump administration as the "White House Artificial Intelligence and Crypto Czar." According to Trump's description of the "position," Sacks will guide U.S. government policy on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, and he will also lead the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

This may not be a good thing for OpenAI.

Who is the saxophone?

It is reported that David Sacks served as the chief operating officer of the payment company PayPal in 1999 and was an important member of the "PayPal Mafia" at the time. Later, David Sachs founded Yammer, an internal corporate social platform, which was acquired by Microsoft for $1.2 billion in 2012. In 2017, he founded the venture capital fund CraftVentures, and its investment projects include well-known companies such as SpaceX, Glean and Palantir.

In addition, David Sacks is also one of the hosts of the venture capital podcast All-In. He also pays attention to and participates in many fields such as encryption and AI.

Trump said on social platforms that "David has the knowledge, business experience, wisdom and pragmatism to make America great in these two key technologies (encryption and artificial intelligence)."

In fact, David Sacks is also one of the important supporters of Trump’s campaign. Earlier this year, Sacks hosted a fundraiser for the then-Republican nominee at his San Francisco mansion, selling tickets for $50,000 each, with an additional $300,000 in ticket categories that included perks such as photos with Trump.

In addition to his own glorious resume, David Sachs's good relationship with Musk has also attracted public attention.

It is understood that the two worked together at PayPal, and Sacks helped Musk in the process of acquiring and transforming Twitter. Musk participated in the All-In podcast this summer to discuss Twitter, SpaceX, and Tesla.

In November this year, as the "number one contributor" to Trump's election success, Musk was named by Trump to lead the "Government Efficiency Department." Today, Sachs has been “appointed” by Trump as the “White House Artificial Intelligence and Encryption Czar.” This may be seen as Trump giving back to his supporters during the presidential campaign.

It may not be a happy event for OpenAI and Ultraman that Musk and Sachs are on the same official career path.

Will OpenAI, which is gaining momentum, encounter challenges?

On December 6, OpenAI launched a 12-day "Shipmas" new product release event, launching new products and projects such as the full version of the o1 model, ChatGPTPro, sora, and enhanced fine-tuning research projects. This means that OpenAI, as the industry leader, will once again present new technological development trends in the field of AI to the world.

Not only are new technology products being released, OpenAI's commercialization process is also in the stage of development.

Recently, Kate Rouch was announced by OpenAI as its first chief marketing officer to respond to the growing demand for artificial intelligence products.

It is also reported that OpenAI will review the AGI provisions in its agreement with Microsoft. As far as the current terms are concerned, Microsoft cannot access OpenAI's most advanced models after it implements AGI, and this has also become an obstacle for OpenAI to obtain financial support from Microsoft. Now, OpenAI is considering removing this provision in order to continue to receive investment from Microsoft.

There are many signs that OpenAI is accelerating the construction of its own business empire.

Musk obviously does not want this business empire to emerge. Earlier, he launched a lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing OpenAI of becoming a commercial company seeking personal gain. As a good friend of Musk, Sachs is bound to stand on the same front as Musk.

Now, Musk and Sachs are wearing "official uniforms." As the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, Musk will have the opportunity to facilitate his own xAI development and cause trouble for OpenAI's commercialization process. If he cooperates with Musk, Sachs will have more direct impact on the AI ​​industry in terms of U.S. artificial intelligence policy.

OpenAI CEO Altman’s reaction is intriguing.

After the news came out that Sachs would be appointed as the "White House Artificial Intelligence and Encryption Czar", Altman promptly expressed his blessing, and Musk responded with a "laughing and crying" expression.

At the New York Times DealBook Summit last week, Altman said that Musk would not use his influence in the new Trump administration to harm competitors. This behavior is very un-American.

Altman's statement seems to be giving Musk a "high hat" and also seems to be sending a signal that he hopes to reconcile with Musk.

Regardless, the OpenAI chief’s recent behavior may indicate that he’s smelling danger.