OpenAI Discloses Elon Musk’s Past Emails on Fundraising In Latest Revelation

In a blog post published Tuesday, March 5, OpenAI addressed the lawsuit initiated by Elon Musk last week. Elon Musk filed the lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, alleging a breach of their non-profit agreement. However, in the latest blog post, OpenAI clarifies that Musk himself had approved the company’s transition to a for-profit entity and emphasized the necessity of raising “billions” of dollars to remain competitive against companies like Google.

Elon Musk Wanted to Make OpenAI Part of Tesla

The blog post from OpenAI indicated that Musk’s actions stemmed from his unsuccessful attempt to integrate the company into Tesla Inc. The blog post co-authored by OpenAI’s co-founders, including Altman, Brockman and Ilya Sutskever, notes:

“We’re sad that it’s come to this with someone whom we’ve deeply admired — someone who inspired us to aim higher, then told us we would fail, started a competitor, and then sued us when we started making meaningful progress towards OpenAI’s mission without him”.

The blog post also included emails from Musk to individuals within the company, revealing his support for OpenAI’s fundraising endeavors. According to OpenAI, Musk wrote in one email, “This needs billions per year immediately or forget it.”

Despite Musk’s contributions of less than $45 million to the non-profit, OpenAI managed to secure over $90 million from other donors. The emails underscore Musk’s push for the company to pursue more ambitious fundraising goals. Initially, Altman and Brockman aimed to raise $100 million. However, in the email, Musk noted:

“We need to go with a much bigger number than $100M to avoid sounding hopeless relative to what Google or Facebook are spending. I think we should say that we are starting with a $1B funding commitment… I will cover whatever anyone else doesn’t provide.”

Elon Musk Not OK With on Close Relationship With Microsoft

Musk’s lawsuit alleges that OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft has diverted from its original mission of developing open-source technology free from corporate influence. Despite its website professing a commitment to ensuring that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits humanity, Musk claims that OpenAI has become a closed-source subsidiary of Microsoft.

According to OpenAI, Musk approved the decision for OpenAI not to develop open-source software for AGI and not to always share the science behind its technological advancements. An email from 2016 cited by the startup indicates that Musk agreed with the idea of being less open as AI development progressed.

In response to these claims, OpenAI’s co-founders stated that Musk had previously acknowledged the importance of corporate influence at OpenAI, suggesting that Tesla was the only potential competitor to Google, albeit with slim odds of success.