OpenAI decided not to stay silent after the Musk vs. OpenAI complaint and decided to reveal more information to give us more insight into what processes were going on inside the company from 2016 to 2018 before Musk made the decision to leave OpenAI.
In this apparent appeal to public opinion, OpenAI reveals what Elon Musk suggested via a forwarded letter “attach to Tesla as its cash cow.” It is unclear who originally sent this letter to Musk because the sender’s name is withheld. Musk eventually forwarded this letter that Elon Musk forwarded to Ilya Sutzkever and Greg Brockman.
According to the released emails, Elon Musk knew that OpenAI was willing to become less open as the startup grew. He also forwarded an email suggesting using “Tesla as a cash cow” to compete with other tech giants like Google. OpenAI says, “In late 2017, Elon and I decided the next step for the mission was to create a for-profit entity. “He also said that he wanted majority equity, initial board control, and to be CEO. According to the OpenAI post, he withheld funding in the middle of these discussions.
Another vital revelation we learned from these emails gives us more information about what the company considered “open.” Ilya Sutskever writes, “As we get closer to building AI, it will make sense to start being less open.”
To which Ilon Musk replies quite succinctly, “Yup.”
In this email, Sutzkever also wrote: “The Open in openAI means that everyone should benefit from the fruits of AI after it’s built, but it’s totally OK not to share the science.” Musk didn’t seem to have any objections when he replied.
