In a contentious legal battle between Elon Musk and OpenAI, the ChatGPT maker has retaliated by revealing emails showing Musk’s previous support for the company’s plan to establish a for-profit entity and raise a substantial $1bn in funding.
The dispute revolves around allegations made by Musk in a recent lawsuit, accusing OpenAI of breaching an agreement to make AI breakthroughs freely available to the public.
Musk, a founding member of OpenAI, contends that the organisation violated its commitment by entering into a multibillion-dollar alliance with Microsoft.
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Musk’s legal team argues that the inner workings of OpenAI’s GPT-4 AI model are shrouded in secrecy, driven more by commercial interests than safety concerns. OpenAI, in response, published a public dismissal of all Musk’s claims on its blog.
The feud originated when Musk, who left OpenAI’s board in 2018 following disagreements with Altman, began raising funds for his own AI venture named xAI.
The release of the emails sheds light on the early stages of OpenAI’s formation in late 2015, when Musk proposed an initial funding commitment of $1bn to kickstart the company.
Despite initially planning for $100m, Musk urged a larger sum to avoid sounding “hopeless.”
As OpenAI delved into the complexities of achieving Artificial General Intelligence (that is, AI that can perform as well or better than humans on a wide range of cognitive tasks) it became apparent that vast resources, in the order of billions of dollars annually, were required.
Musk and OpenAI mutually acknowledged the necessity of a for-profit entity to acquire such resources.
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By GlobalDataHowever, negotiations on the for-profit structure faltered as OpenAI resisted the idea of any individual, including Musk, having absolute control.
The emails reveal Musk’s proposition to merge OpenAI with Tesla and his desire for majority equity, initial board control, and the CEO position. When the terms could not be agreed upon, Musk withheld funding, prompting Reid Hoffman to step in and cover essential expenses.
Musk opted to leave the startup, stating a perceived probability of success as zero and expressing his intent to build an AGI competitor within Tesla.
The company said that it rebuts Musk’s claims, stating that the mission does not imply open-sourcing AGI and expressing disappointment in Musk’s legal actions.
Research and analysis company GlobalData forecasts that the overall AI market will be worth $909bn by 2030, having grown at a compound annual rate of 35% between 2022 and 2030.
In the GenAI space, revenues are expected to grow from $1.8bn in 2022 to $33bn in 2027, according to the company.
