OpenAI hits back at Musk, says billionaire pushed for merger with Tesla
Add BT as a preferred source
DeeperDive is a beta AI feature. Refer to full articles for the facts.
OPENAI on Tuesday (Mar 6) hit back at Elon Musk’s claims that the startup abandoned its original mission with emails that showed the billionaire supported its plan to create a for-profit entity and wanted a merger that would make Tesla its “cash cow.”
Musk, one of the co-founders of OpenAI, filed a lawsuit last week, alleging the startup breached their founding agreement to develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity, rather than for profit, by partnering with Microsoft.
OpenAI’s other co-founders including Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever said they would move to dismiss all of his claims, in a blog post that contained emails sent by Musk.
“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,” they said.
OpenAI had agreed on the for-profit entity in 2017 after realising its non-profit structure would not be able to able to support the development of artificial general intelligence, a concept that machines could handle tasks like humans, according to the post.
“Only path”
“As we discussed a for-profit structure in order to further the mission, Elon wanted us to merge with Tesla or he wanted full control,” OpenAI said, adding that “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.”
Navigate Asia in
a new global order
Get the insights delivered to your inbox.
“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.’”
Musk and Tesla did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on the blog.
Tesla shares were down nearly 4 per cent on Wednesday.
“(Musk) saw something early at OpenAI that he thought could benefit Tesla. At this point, the lawsuit seems like a frivolous distraction for the main mission at Tesla,” said Craig Irwin, senior research analyst at Roth Capital.
OpenAI also said Musk had pushed the startup to be more aggressive with fundraising, with the Tesla CEO wanting a US$1 billion funding round for the startup in 2015, after Altman and Brockman initially planned to raise US$100 million.
In total, the non-profit has raised less than US$45 million from Musk, according to the blog post.
OpenAI’s responses hit at the heart of the lawsuit filed late on Thursday in California Superior Court in San Francisco.
The lawsuit had marked a culmination of Musk’s long-simmering opposition to the startup. Since he left the startup, OpenAI has become the face of generative AI, while Musk went on to found his own AI startup, xAI, which was launched last July.
Some legal experts said Musk’s allegations of breach of contract, based partly on an email between Musk and Altman, might not hold up in court. REUTERS
Decoding Asia newsletter: your guide to navigating Asia in a new global order. Sign up here to get Decoding Asia newsletter. Delivered to your inbox. Free.
Share with us your feedback on BT's products and services
TRENDING NOW
Air India asks Tata, Singapore Airlines for funds after US$2.4 billion loss
Beijing’s calculated silence on the Iran war
China pips the US if Asean is forced to choose, but analysts warn against reading it like a sports result
Richard Eu on how core values, customers keep Singapore’s TCM chain Eu Yan Sang relevant
