OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has accused Elon Musk of inflicting "huge damage" on the culture of the artificial intelligence startup. His remarks came during testimony as part of Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI.
According to Altman, Musk required Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president, and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever to rank researchers based on their accomplishments. Altman described this directive as a demand to "take a chainsaw through a bunch."
Altman acknowledged that Musk’s management approach was consistent with his reputation at Tesla but argued it was ill-suited for a research-focused organization. When questioned by his lawyer, William Savitt, about the impact of Musk’s departure from OpenAI on team morale, Altman testified:
"I don't think Mr. Musk understood how to run a good research lab."
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