Elon Musk’s lawyers announced on June 11 that they are dropping the lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman. This move ended a lengthy legal battle that stretched on for several months between the AI company’s co-founders.
Musk cofounded OpenAI in 2015 with 11 others, including Altman. According to Musk, the original mission of the company was to be a nonprofit organization focused on democratizing AI. The billionaire sued in February for breach of the original founding agreement.
In a series of tweets, Musk accused OpenAI of lying and criticized their partnership with Microsoft. He even suggested they change their name to “ClosedAI” if they wanted him to drop the lawsuit.
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OpenAI swiftly responded to Musk’s claims, calling them ‘incoherent’ and ‘frivolous.’ They backed their stance with a blog post that included several of Musk’s emails from OpenAI’s early days, painting a different picture from the one Musk presented in his lawsuit.
The emails showed Musk admitting that OpenAI needed to make significant money to support its AI goals. This contradicted his lawsuit claims that OpenAI was wrongfully chasing profit. In one email, Musk suggested, “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.”
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In early February 2018, Musk sent an email suggesting that OpenAI should “attach to Tesla as its cash cow,” showing that he wanted OpenAI to merge with Tesla or come under his full control. Musk eventually left OpenAI, stating there needed to be a strong competitor to Google/DeepMind and that he planned to create it himself. He mentioned he would support OpenAI in finding its own path.
The emails also showed that Musk knew OpenAI’s mission did not require sharing its artificial general intelligence (AGI) developments with the public. As Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s co-founder, told Musk, “As we get closer to building AI, it will make sense to start being less open. The ‘Open’ in OpenAI means that everyone should benefit from the fruits of AI after it’s built, but it’s totally OK to not share the science.” Musk agreed, replying, “Yup.”
Altman also didn’t hold back, explaining that OpenAI originally began as a research lab with no intention of making a profit. However, as the technology developed, the company had to adjust and make choices that, in retrospect, might appear questionable.
The public disagreement has caught a lot of attention and started a debate about what responsibilities AI companies should have. This even led President Biden to say, “Artificial intelligence and the companies that wield its possibilities are going to transform the lives of people around the world — there’s no doubt about that. But first, they must earn our trust.”
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