OpenAI Explains Why Musk Left: He Wanted Control
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On March 6, according to foreign media reports, after responding to Elon Musk's lawsuit in San Francisco in a memo to employees and denying his main claims, OpenAI also published an official statement on their website. They disclosed some past interactions with Musk before his departure and released some of their email exchanges with him.
On their website, OpenAI published an article titled OpenAI and Elon Musk, signed by OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman, co-founder and president Greg Brockman, co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, as well as John Schulman and Wojciech Zaremba.
In the article, OpenAI stated at the outset that their mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity. This means they aim to build safe and beneficial AGI while also helping to distribute its benefits widely.
OpenAI also made it clear that they would share some of what they have learned in pursuing their mission, as well as facts about their relationship with Musk. They intend to take action to dismiss all of Musk's allegations. In the lawsuit, Musk accused them of deviating from their non-profit mission through their $13 billion partnership with Microsoft. In response, OpenAI stated in the article that they realized building artificial general intelligence (AGI) would require far more resources than initially anticipated. Both Musk and OpenAI recognized that a for-profit entity would be necessary to secure these resources.
OpenAI disclosed in the article that when they launched at the end of 2015, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman planned to raise $100 million in funding. However, Musk argued that more was needed to avoid sounding hopeless, suggesting they should start with a $1 billion funding commitment. He stated that if others couldn't provide the funds, he would make up the difference. OpenAI also mentioned that Musk contributed less than $45 million in total, while other donors provided over $90 million.
According to the information disclosed by OpenAI in the article, their disagreements with Musk arose during discussions about establishing a for-profit structure to achieve their long-term mission.
They revealed in the article that when they and Musk decided at the end of 2017 that the next step in their mission was to create a for-profit entity, Musk wanted majority equity, initial control of the board, and to serve as CEO. However, they couldn't agree to these terms as they felt complete individual control of OpenAI would contradict their mission. During their discussions about creating a for-profit entity, Musk ceased providing funding, which was subsequently covered by others to meet salary and operational needs.
After failing to reach an agreement on establishing a for-profit entity, Musk then proposed merging OpenAI with Tesla. In February 2018, he forwarded an email suggesting Tesla could act as a cash cow, stating it was entirely correct and that merging with Tesla was the only viable path to compete with Google, though he admitted the chances were slim, if not zero.
When Musk chose to leave due to disagreements, his words were less than gracious. OpenAI mentioned in their statement that upon his departure, Musk claimed their chances of success were zero and announced his plans to build a competitor for general artificial intelligence within Tesla.
Despite his pessimistic outlook upon leaving, OpenAI revealed that Musk, when he departed at the end of February 2018, had informed the team he supported their efforts to find a way to raise billions in funding. In December of the same year, Musk reiterated in an email to them that raising hundreds of millions was insufficient—they would need billions annually, or they might as well give up. Regarding Elon Musk's accusation that OpenAI has kept the code of its latest generative AI products confidential and no longer open-sourced, OpenAI has also touched upon this issue in the emails it released with Musk.
In an email dated January 2, 2016, sent by Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever to Musk, Sam Altman, and Greg Brockman, it was mentioned that as they got closer to building AI, it would make sense to become less open. OpenAI's openness means that everyone should benefit from the achievements of AI, but it is also perfectly acceptable not to share the related science.
OpenAI expressed regret over the lawsuit Musk filed against them. They stated in the text that it is unfortunate to have reached this point with someone they deeply admire, who inspired them to aim higher, then told them they would fail, and subsequently founded a competitor. When OpenAI began making meaningful progress toward their mission without him, he sued them.
Despite being sued by Musk, OpenAI remains focused on its mission. On its official website, OpenAI stated that it will continue to focus on advancing its mission, acknowledging that there is still a long way to go. As they continue to improve their tools and make them better, they are also excited to deploy those systems so that they empower everyone.