That Elon Musk and Sam Altman hate each other It’s nothing new. The news is that their rivalry is about to reach the courts. Yesterday jury selection took place which will decide whether, as Musk says, OpenAI violated its founding agreement to be a nonprofit organization. Much more is judged than that; The case aims to be a soap opera in which years of personal conflict will be aired.
The accusation. In 2024, Elon Musk sued Sam Altman and OpenAI for having broken the company’s founding agreement, which said that “OpenAI is a non-profit artificial intelligence research company.” The CEO of SpaceX, who was one of the founders of OpenAI, claims that he was scammed and as soon as they got his money ($38 million) “he radically changed the narrative and dedicated himself to profiting (…) taking advantage of his humanitarian concern.” Musk calls for the dismissal of Sam Altman and his president, Greg Brockman, as well as $134 billion that would go to the nonprofit arm of OpenAI.
OpenAI’s response. According to the company, Elon Musk was aware of the plan become a for-profit entitywhich was a necessary step for the company. OpenAI says that Musk is jealous and “regrets having retired” in 2018. In addition, they say that the money Musk contributed was not an investment, but a donation, and does not give him any ownership rights over OpenAI, as they say in Guardian.
The breakup. OpenAI was founded in 2015 and shortly after, in 2017, it became clear that developing the dreamed-of AGI was going to require a lot of money, something difficult to achieve as a non-profit company. Here the option of a collaboration between OpenAI and Tesla was raised to solve the financing problem. According to OpenAI, Musk wanted full control of the company and this is where everything went wrong.
The timing. Although he left the company in 2018, Musk does not sue OpenAI until 2024. During this time, OpenAI launched ChatGPT and ended up signing its great agreement with Microsoft. Apparently, this was what finally pissed off Musk, who accused OpenAI of having become a branch of Microsoft. Their objective was to annul the agreement, although much has happened since then. Today, OpenAI is the most valuable private company in the worldwith investments from giants such as NVIDIA, Amazon or Softbank. If Musk wins, his problem is no longer canceling the agreement with Microsoft, but something much more important: it puts at stake its planned IPO.
A personal rivalry. Beyond the official accusations, Musk and Altman have a personal rivalry that has been brewing for years with countless public taunts and accusations. Musk has said that Altman is a liar and a scammer (He usually calls it ‘Scam Altman’) or that ChatGPT is a ‘woke’ AI. Altman has not been left behind; He has said that Musk is an idiot and even ridiculed him for the Tesla he bought and that was never deliveredgoing so far as to publish emails asking for a refund. In the trial, private details such as Elon Musk’s use of ketamine are expected to be aired, something that according to OpenAI is relevant since it portrays his mental state quite well. Let the show begin.
Cover image | Village Global and Gage Skidmorevia Flickr
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