OpenAI once tried merging with Tesla, but Musk wanted too much control

After being sued by Elon Musk for deviating from its mission of developing AI for the benefit of humanity, and turning into a for-profit organization, OpenAI has decided to clap back.

Elon Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 alongside Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and Peter Thiel, and his early involvement has left a lot of testimonials about his involvement in the company. Amid the new lawsuit, OpenAI decided to publish some early emails from 2015 to 2018, when Musk was still a part of OpenAI.

“We are now sharing what we’ve learned about achieving our mission, and some facts about our relationship with Elon. We intend to move to dismiss all of Elon’s claims,” wrote OpenAI.

When the startup launched in 2015, Altman and Brockman had initially planned to raise $100 million. Musk, however, suggested that the company should announce an initial billion dollar funding commitment, with $45 million raised from Musk and more than $90 million from other donors. “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,” wrote Musk in an early email.

Subsequently, in 2017, the company realized that developing Artificial general intelligence (AGI) requires a lot of computing power, and that would require “a lot more capital,” around “billions of dollars per year.” The team also realized that raising that amount of money as a non-profit organization would be highly unlikely, “especially Elon.”

The blog goes on to state that Musk wanted OpenAI to merge with Tesla, or wanted full control of the company. He suggested that OpenAI should “attach to Tesla as its cash cow.” When the terms couldn’t be agreed upon, Musk chose to leave OpenAI. He said that the company’s probability of success was zero, though he’s supportive of OpenAI finding its own path to raising billions of dollars.

So essentially, Musk helped found OpenAI > tried to get it off the ground > decided it would be impossible for it to grow without large funding > left OpenAI because he thought it has a zero percent chance at success > is butthurt because OpenAI is making significant progress without him > decided it’s time to sue.

“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,” wrote OpenAI.

The company then added several early emails between Musk and members of OpenAI. You can check them out here. Musk hasn’t commented on the development yet.

Source: OpenAI