Elon Musk Sought “Absolute Control” Over OpenAI, Company Claims

OpenAI Refutes Elon Musk’s Claims, Alleging He Sought “Absolute Control”

OpenAI’s Response to Musk’s Lawsuit

In a recent blog post, OpenAI addressed Elon Musk’s lawsuit, stating that the entrepreneur once desired “absolute control” over the company by proposing a merger with Tesla. The post, authored by OpenAI’s co-founders, asserted that they will seek to dismiss all of Musk’s claims and provided their own perspective on the company’s transition from a nonprofit to a for-profit entity.

Musk’s Alleged Demands for Control

According to OpenAI, during discussions about adopting a for-profit structure, Musk demanded either a merger with Tesla or complete control over OpenAI, including:

• Majority equity
• Initial board control
• The role of CEO

The co-founders stated that they couldn’t agree to these terms, as they believed it would be contrary to the mission for any single individual to have absolute control over OpenAI.

Musk’s Allegations and OpenAI’s Defense

In his lawsuit, Musk claimed that OpenAI has become a “closed-source de facto subsidiary” of Microsoft, prioritizing financial gain over benefiting humanity. He argued that this constitutes a breach of contract, although no formal agreement has been made public yet.

OpenAI defended its decision not to open-source its work, stating that Musk understood the mission did not imply open-sourcing artificial general intelligence (AGI). The company shared an email conversation from January 2016 in which Musk agreed with the notion of being less open as they progressed in building AI.

Puzzling Allegations and OpenAI’s Stance

Musk’s suit also included some puzzling allegations, such as claiming that GPT-4 is a “de facto Microsoft proprietary algorithm” representing AGI. While OpenAI had already rejected these claims in a staff memo, they did not address them in the public blog post.

As we discussed a for-profit structure in order to further the mission, Elon wanted us to merge with Tesla or he wanted full control,

The blog post serves as OpenAI’s public response to Musk’s lawsuit, offering a contrasting narrative to his account of the company’s evolution and mission.