Founders of the company behind ChatGPT, OpenAI, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, have responded to the lawsuit filed by Elon Musk accusing them of changing the mission of the company to become profit-oriented.
The founders in a response published on the OpenAI blog said Musk was part of the decision to make OpenAI a for-profit entity in 2017.
According to them, based on the decision, Musk wanted OpenAI to be merged with his company, Tesla so that he could have full control.
The billionaire was also said to have requested to have majority equity, initial board control, and to be the CEO of the company.
In a quite revealing expose backed with screenshots of email conversations with Musk, the OpenAI founders narrated the company’s journey and the relationship they had with Elon Musk.
- “When starting OpenAI in late 2015, Greg and Sam had initially planned to raise $100 million. Elon said in an email: ‘We need to go with a much bigger number than $100M to avoid sounding hopeless… I think we should say that we are starting with a $1B funding commitment… I will cover whatever anyone else doesn’t provide.’
- “We spent a lot of time trying to envision a plausible path to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). In early 2017, we came to the realization that building AGI would require vast quantities of computing.
- “We began calculating how much compute an AGI might plausibly require. We all understood we were going to need a lot more capital to succeed at our mission—billions of dollars per year, which was far more than any of us, especially Elon, thought we’d be able to raise as the non-profit,” they shared in the blog post.
Musk wanted full control
While noting that they, together with Musk recognized a for-profit entity would be necessary to acquire those resources, they said this led to moves by the billionaire to have full control of the company.
- “As we discussed a for-profit structure to further the mission, Elon wanted us to merge with Tesla or he wanted full control.
- “Elon left OpenAI, saying there needed to be a relevant competitor to Google/DeepMind and that he was going to do it himself. He said he’d be supportive of us finding our path.
- “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.
- “In the middle of these discussions, he withheld funding. Reid Hoffman bridged the gap to cover salaries and operations,” the founders narrated.
- “We couldn’t agree to terms on a for-profit with Elon because we felt it was against the mission for any individual to have absolute control over OpenAI. He then suggested instead merging OpenAI into Tesla.
- “In early February 2018, Elon forwarded us an email suggesting that OpenAI should “attach to Tesla as its cash cow”, commenting that it was “exactly right… Tesla is the only path that could even hope to hold a candle to Google,” they added.
How Musk left OpenAI
According to them, Musk chose to leave OpenAI, saying that the probability of success for the company was zero and that he planned to build an AGI competitor within Tesla.
When he left in late February 2018, Musk was said to have told the team he was supportive of them finding their own path to raising billions of dollars.
- “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.
- “We are focused on advancing our mission and have a long way to go. As we continue to make our tools better and better, we are excited to deploy these systems so they empower every individual,” Altman and Brockman said in response to Musk’s lawsuit.
The lawsuit
Elon Musk had last week filed a lawsuit against OpenAi Sam Altman and Greg Brockman for turning the company into a profit-making venture.
Musk, who co-founded and was one of the early backers of OpenAI said the mission of the company was to be a non-profit that develops AI for the benefit of humanity.
The Tesla CEO claims that Altman and Brockman convinced him to help found and bankroll the startup in 2015 with promises it would be a non-profit focused on countering the competitive threat from Google.
According to the lawsuit, the founding agreement required OpenAI to make its technology “freely available” to the public.
