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The Elon Musk vs. OpenAI Emails: What We Learned
A lawsuit filed by Elon Musk against OpenAI has brought forward a trove of emails that provide a fascinating look into the company’s early days. These exchanges, featuring Musk, Sam Altman, and other key players, reveal tensions over leadership, visions for AGI (artificial general intelligence), and business decisions. Let’s dive into some of the most intriguing snippets.
Musk’s Desire for Control
In one email, former Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever raised concerns about Musk’s leadership approach:
The current structure provides you with a path where you end up with unilateral absolute control over the AGI. You stated that you don’t want to control the final AGI, but during this negotiation, you’ve shown to us that absolute control is extremely important to you.
Sutskever highlighted Musk’s contradictory stance, noting his insistence on being CEO to project authority despite claiming to dislike the role:
As an example, you said that you needed to be CEO of the new company so that everyone will know that you are the one who is in charge, even though you also stated that you hate being CEO and would much rather not be CEO.
Sutskever’s worry went beyond corporate control, focusing on the risks of creating an AGI dictatorship. The email reflects a broader concern:
The goal of OpenAI is to make the future good and to avoid an AGI dictatorship. You are concerned that Demis [Hassabis, of DeepMind] could create an AGI dictatorship. So do we. So it is a bad idea to create a structure where you could become a dictator if you chose to.
Questions Around Altman
Sutskever also questioned Sam Altman’s motivations during this period, mirroring concerns later raised by OpenAI’s board:
We haven’t been able to fully trust your judgments throughout this process because we don’t understand your cost function. We don’t understand why the CEO title is so important to you. Your stated reasons have changed, and it’s hard to really understand what’s driving it. Is AGI truly your primary motivation? How does it connect to your political goals?
Altman’s leadership ultimately steered OpenAI toward a more traditional business model, a move some argue prioritizes profit over philosophy.
Business Deals That Didn’t Happen
One email revealed OpenAI’s consideration of acquiring chipmaker Cerebras, possibly with Tesla’s involvement:
In the event we decide to buy Cerebras, my strong sense is that it’ll be done through Tesla,” wrote Sutskever.
At the time, Musk and co-founder Andrej Karpathy envisioned using Tesla’s resources to fund OpenAI’s ambitions. Karpathy explained:
The most promising option I can think of, as I mentioned earlier, would be for OpenAI to attach to Tesla as its cash cow. […] If we do this really well, the transportation industry is large enough that we could increase Tesla’s market cap to high O(~100K), and use that revenue to fund the AI work at the appropriate scale.
However, these plans fell through. Tesla’s market cap eventually soared, but its self-driving efforts struggled to meet expectations and have yet to contribute significantly to revenue.
Early Microsoft Partnership Offers
Another email exchange revealed Microsoft’s early interest in collaborating with OpenAI, offering $60 million in Azure computing power in 2016. However, Musk was hesitant, writing:
Would be worth way more than $50M not to seem like Microsoft’s marketing bitch.
This reluctance to engage in corporate promotion set the tone for OpenAI’s approach to partnerships at the time.
Surprising Connections
One surprising detail is that Valve founder Gabe Newell was an early supporter of OpenAI, even serving on an informal advisory board with Altman and Greg Brockman. While his exact contributions are unclear, it highlights the diverse network that helped shape OpenAI’s beginnings.
The Bigger Picture
These emails, while offering only a partial view, illuminate the philosophical debates, leadership struggles, and business decisions that shaped OpenAI. They reveal Musk’s vision for AGI, Altman’s business-savvy approach, and the early challenges of building an AI company with global ambitions.
As this lawsuit unfolds, it’s clear that the decisions made during OpenAI’s formative years continue to influence its trajectory today.
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