OpenAI counters Elon Musk’s lawsuit, reveals tech mogul predicted their failure OpenAI counters Elon Musk’s lawsuit, reveals tech mogul predicted their failure
OpenAI defends its for-profit pivot against Elon Musk's accusations.
2 min read
Updated: Mar. 6, 2024 at 1:20 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
Artificial intelligence company OpenAI has announced its intention to dismiss all allegations made by Elon Musk, revealing the tech billionaire initially assigned the company’s success odds at zero.
Responding to Musk’s recent lawsuit alleging a departure from its nonprofit roots, OpenAI unveiled email correspondences shedding light on its interactions with Musk.
Last week, Musk, a founding board member of the AI company, accused the firm of veering off course by prioritizing profit over its mission of advancing technology for societal good.
OpenAI’s response
In a comprehensive rebuttal, OpenAI disclosed that Musk endorsed the establishment of a for-profit wing back in 2017. However, negotiations faltered as Musk sought extensive control, including majority equity, initial board dominance, and the CEO position.
OpenAI said:
“In late 2017, we and Elon decided the next step for the mission was to create a for-profit entity. Elon wanted majority equity, initial board control, and to be CEO.”
Consequently, Elon left OpenAI, saying that its “probability of success was 0 and that he planned to build an AGI competitor within Tesla.”
Addressing criticisms regarding the non-disclosure of its research, OpenAI clarified, “Elon understood the mission did not imply open-sourcing AGI.” The company referenced a January 2016 email exchange wherein it was deemed appropriate to limit transparency as AI advancements neared fruition.
Key stakeholders, including co-founders Greg Brockman and Sam Altman, authored OpenAI’s response. Other authors are: Ilya Sutskever, John Schulman, and Wojciech Zaremba.
“We’re sad that it’s come to this with someone whom we’ve deeply admired – someone who inspired us to aim higher, then told us we would fail, started a competitor, and then sued us when we started making meaningful progress towards OpenAI’s mission without him,” the authors concluded.
Last year, Musk, known for his ventures in various technological domains, founded x.AI Corp, a privately owned for-profit enterprise. This company is actively engaged in the development of a closed-source AI model called Grok.
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OpenAI
OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company committed to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence helps all of humanity.
Tesla
Tesla is a manufacturer of electric vehicles and a clean energy company led by billionaire Elon Musk.
Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI, an AI research and deployment company since 2019.
South African-born Elon Musk has founded several companies, including X.com (which later became PayPal), SpaceX and Tesla Motors.