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OpenAI Trial: Musk Tried to Recruit Altman for Tesla
7 May
Summary
- Emails show Musk offered Sam Altman a Tesla board seat.
- Musk claimed Altman and Brockman stole OpenAI for profit.
- OpenAI lawyers suggest Musk's suit stems from control failure.
Emails and testimony revealed in federal court on Wednesday indicate Elon Musk's past efforts to recruit Sam Altman for Tesla's AI initiatives.
Months before Musk departed OpenAI's board in February 2018, he reportedly offered Altman a Tesla board seat and proposed a "world-class AI lab" within the company. These revelations emerged during the Musk v. Altman trial, where Musk alleges Altman and Greg Brockman misappropriated his $38 million investment to establish a lucrative private entity.
OpenAI's legal team counters that Musk's lawsuit is driven by "sour grapes" following his unsuccessful attempt to control OpenAI in 2017. They presented evidence suggesting Musk sought to absorb OpenAI into Tesla. Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI advisor and Tesla executive, testified and her communications were presented, highlighting discussions about a potential Tesla AI subsidiary and a planned event at the NeurIPS AI conference.
The FAQ draft for Tesla's AI event noted that the company aimed to build an AI lab rivaling major tech firms, and addressed the potential confusion between Elon Musk and OpenAI. Emails also suggested Musk considered recruiting former OpenAI researcher Andrej Karpathy to Tesla, a claim disputed by Musk's own testimony earlier in the trial.
