Does Elon Musk And OpenAI Want To Democratise Or Sanitise Artificial Intelligence?

As reported in Forbes yesterday, Elon Musk announced the OpenAI research initiative, with the explicit goal to "advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return." Details are sparse at this time given its recent inception, but Musk has a history of being outspoken about the dangers of artificial intelligence, calling it the biggest existential threat that humanity may face in years to come.

But will the entrepreneur’s own fear of human-level A.I. rob us all of its true potential ?
In an interview given to Steven Levy, both Musk and Y-Combinator CEO, Sam Altman, lay out their plans for OpenAI, and reading between the lines there is definitely an undertone behind the altruistic intent of an open artificial intelligence for all. For one, both Musk and Altman are appointing themselves as the Watchmen of artificial intelligence, with Sam stating in the interview that "We do want to build out an oversight for it over time. It’ll start just with Elon and me."