Elon Musk sought to hire the founding team of OpenAI—including Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and Ilya Sutskever—to establish a new artificial intelligence laboratory within Tesla in 2018. This revelation emerged during a high-stakes trial between Musk and OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, on Wednesday.
The disclosures highlight a pivotal issue in the case, where Musk has accused Altman of "stealing a charity" by transitioning OpenAI from a nonprofit to a for-profit entity. OpenAI’s legal team has countered that Musk was supportive of commercializing the organization, provided he retained control.
According to court evidence, Musk proposed bringing Altman, Brockman, and Sutskever to Tesla, either by appointing Altman to the OpenAI board or restructuring OpenAI as a Tesla subsidiary. These negotiations unfolded amid growing tensions within OpenAI regarding leadership and its future direction.
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