Sam Altman · OpenAI · Elon Musk · Microsoft · Tesla · xAI · TechCrunch AI
Musk mulled handing OpenAI to his children, Altman testifies
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman finally took the stand this morning to defend himself against his former co-founder Elon Musk’s lawsuit challenging OpenAI’s corporate structure.
Key facts
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman finally took the stand this morning to defend himself against his former co-founder Elon Musk’s lawsuit challenging OpenAI’s corporate structure
- Musk’s attorneys have been at pains to point out that OpenAI’s foundation, which now has assets on the order of $200 billion, didn’t have full-time employees until earlier this year
- After that clash went unresolved, Musk ultimately left OpenAI's board and started competing AI initiatives at Tesla and his own AI startup, xAI
- Indeed, Altman cast himself as defending the "sweat equity" of fellow co-founders Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever, the two people effectively running OpenAI at the time while Musk and Altman
Summary
Altman was immediately asked what he thought of Musk’s allegation that OpenAI’s other founders “stole a charity” when they launched a for-profit subsidiary to market products based on the company’s AI models. “It feels difficult to even wrap my head around that framing,” Altman said after several seconds of silence. Musk’s attorneys have been at pains to point out that OpenAI’s foundation, which now has assets on the order of $200 billion, didn’t have full-time employees until earlier this year. The central question posed by Musk’s lawyers is whether the company’s commitment to safety had been left behind as its commercial power grew.