Elon Musk sought full control of OpenAI. He also suggested leadership could go to his children. Sam Altman told a jury this on Tuesday. Altman is a co-founder of OpenAI. OpenAI is the company behind ChatGPT.
Musk is suing Altman and OpenAI. He claims Altman “looted a charity”. OpenAI started as a non-profit organization. Altman testified in federal court in Oakland, California. He said Musk supported making OpenAI a for-profit company. Musk also wanted long-term control. Altman described a “hair-raising moment”. Cofounders asked Musk what would happen if he died. Musk suggested control might pass to his children. These comments came as Musk tried for more control. OpenAI was founded in 2015. Musk explored several ways to gain influence.
Musk wanted more board seats. He also wanted to be chief executive. Altman said Musk suggested OpenAI become a Tesla subsidiary. Tesla is Musk's electric vehicle company. Altman said the main goal was getting “more money faster”. He recalled conversations about changing OpenAI’s structure. It was to become a traditional for-profit entity. Musk felt he should lead such a company. His fame as a businessperson could secure financial backing. Altman recalled Musk saying a tweet would be “instantly worth a ton”.
Altman, Greg Brockman, and Ilya Sutskever are OpenAI co-founders. They decided against giving Musk too much control. They felt it would not help OpenAI’s mission. This mission is pursuing artificial general intelligence (AGI). Altman was “extremely uncomfortable” with Musk's demands. He stated, “One of the reasons we started OpenAI was because we didn't think any one person should be in control of AGI.” AGI is AI that can outperform humans on most tasks. Musk left OpenAI in early 2018. He stopped his $5 million quarterly donations. Altman remembered an email from Musk. It said OpenAI had “zero per cent chance of success” without him. In 2019, OpenAI formed a for-profit subsidiary. Altman offered Musk a chance to invest. Musk declined. He said he would not invest in startups he did not control.