OpenAI, the artificial intelligence (AI) research organization, has responded to a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk, accusing him of seeking a merger between OpenAI and Tesla. Musk, who helped launch and fund OpenAI, argued that the company had abandoned its original plans to be an open-source developer. OpenAI has retaliated by releasing reproduced emails that allegedly show Musk’s early support for creating a for-profit AI company and merging it with Tesla.
The lawsuit, filed in a San Francisco court, claims that OpenAI’s co-founders, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, breached their agreement with Musk by abandoning the nonprofit commitment over the years. Musk is asking the court to order OpenAI, which is now backed by Microsoft, to make its works freely available to the public and prohibit anyone, including Microsoft, from profiting from its AI technology.
In response, OpenAI published a series of emails from Musk in a blog post, highlighting what they believe to be his hypocrisy. The emails reveal that Musk encouraged OpenAI to raise $1 billion instead of the initial $100 million and suggested that the company should “start being less open” over time and not share its works with the public. OpenAI also claimed that Musk wanted majority equity, initial board control, and to be the CEO in the for-profit venture.
While the reproduced emails do not substantiate these claims, they do show that Musk proposed a merge with Tesla when OpenAI was struggling to compete with Google’s DeepMind. However, OpenAI expressed concerns that building out a product from scratch would take a long time and might not catch up to Google’s scale.
Musk walked away from OpenAI’s board in February 2018, a month after the merger offer was supposedly made. Since then, he has become an outspoken critic of the company and has advised U.S. Senators to establish a federal department to act as a “referee” in the AI industry. Musk is also raising money for his own AI project called XAI.
OpenAI expressed sadness that the dispute has devolved into a court battle, stating that they admired Musk and that he inspired them to aim higher. In March 2019, OpenAI transformed itself into OpenAI LP, a “capped-profit” entity. This means that profits for investors are capped at 100 times their original investment, with any excess passed on to the overarching nonprofit company, OpenAI Inc.
OpenAI’s decision to respond to Musk’s lawsuit by releasing reproduced emails has shed light on the complex relationship between the two entities. The lawsuit will likely continue to garner attention as it unfolds, especially given Musk’s history with OpenAI and his prominent position in the AI industry.
