Sam Altman · OpenAI · Elon Musk · Tesla · China · ChatGPT · BBC Technology
Elon Musk confirmed control of OpenAI should go to his children, Sam Altman tells jury
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Elon Musk tried to take control of OpenAI, even suggesting it could pass to his children when he dies, Sam Altman said on Tuesday.
Key facts
- Ultimately, Musk left OpenAI in early 2018 and stopped his quarterly donations of $5 million to the company
- When Altman offered Musk the option of investing in OpenAI when it formed a for-profit subsidiary in 2019, Musk declined
- But Altman said he, as well as OpenAI co-founders Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever, decided handing Musk such control in exchange for more or easier financing would not help OpenAI's mission
- Elon Musk tried to take control of OpenAI, even suggesting it could pass to his children when he dies, Sam Altman said on Tuesday
Summary
Altman is co-founder and chief executive of the artificial intelligence (AI) company behind ChatGPT. Appearing before a federal jury in Oakland, California, Altman said Musk not only backed the idea of OpenAI becoming a for-profit business, he wanted control of it for the long-run. "A particularly hair-raising moment was when my cofounders asked, 'If you have control, what happens when you die?' He said something like '.maybe it should pass to my children.'" The alleged comments from Musk came as the billionaire was trying to get more control of OpenAI after it was founded in 2015, and had floated several ways of gaining it.