Newly revealed emails from a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk against OpenAI expose the internal conflicts that shaped the artificial intelligence company’s early years. The correspondence, dating from 2015 to 2019, details discussions between co-founders Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and other key figures about the organization’s structure and leadership.
The documents show that OpenAI initially struggled to attract top talent while competing against established players like Google’s DeepMind, leading to aggressive compensation packages for researchers. Internal tensions emerged when both Musk and Altman sought the CEO position, with chief scientist Ilya Sutskever expressing concerns about either individual gaining “unilateral absolute control” over the development of artificial general intelligence.
The situation reached a critical point in 2018 when Musk, who had invested between $50 million and $100 million, departed from OpenAI’s board after his proposal to take control of the company was rejected. Following his departure, OpenAI transformed from a nonprofit into a “capped profit” structure in 2019, securing additional funding from investors including Microsoft, a move that Musk now contests in his lawsuit.
Sources: TechCrunch, The Verge