Musk Attempted to Recruit Altman to Tesla AI Lab Before Leaving OpenAI Board
According to emails and testimony presented in federal court during the Musk v. Altman trial, Elon Musk attempted to recruit Sam Altman to join a “world-class AI lab” within Tesla a few months before leaving OpenAI’s board in February 2018, wired.com reports. Musk offered Altman a Tesla board seat as part of the recruitment effort.
The emails were shown during cross-examination of Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI adviser and board member who is also the mother of four of Musk’s children, according to wired.com. Zilis served as a conduit between Musk and Altman during this period.
According to techcrunch.com, tensions between Musk and OpenAI’s leadership reached a breaking point in late August 2017 when Musk demanded full control of the company. During a meeting, when told the other co-founders would not grant him control, Greg Brockman testified that Musk “got angry and upset” and said “I decline,” before storming around the table and asking “When will you be departing OpenAI?”
Musk stopped his regular donations to OpenAI’s operating budget following this confrontation and left the board within six months, though he paid for office space until 2020, techcrunch.com reports. Musk’s lawsuit claims that Altman and Greg Brockman effectively stole the nonprofit to create a private company now worth over $800 billion, according to wired.com.