OpenAI’s tumultuous early years revealed in emails from Musk, Altman, and others

Revealed emails expose early OpenAI conflicts with Musk over AGI leadership and partnerships.

: Emails between Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and others from OpenAI's early days reveal tensions over leadership and direction. Ilya Sutskever expressed concerns about Musk's desire for control over AGI development. Discussions about acquiring Cerebras and partnerships, including a rejected Microsoft offer, also emerged. Gabe Newell was noted as an advisor.

Revealed emails from OpenAI's early days highlight internal disagreements regarding leadership and the company's direction. Former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever voiced concerns over Elon Musk's desire for absolute control over AGI, emphasizing the potential dangers of a single person controlling such powerful technology. This concern was shared due to the fear of an AGI dictatorship akin to what could happen at DeepMind.

There are also mentions of early strategic considerations, such as OpenAI's potential purchase of chipmaker Cerebras using Tesla's resources. Musk and Andrej Karpathy discussed aligning OpenAI with Tesla, envisioning it as a revenue source for AI development, though this plan never materialized. Microsoft, offering $60 million worth of compute resources, was another strategic option considered, but Musk dismissed it as unfavorable.

Additionally, Valve founder Gabe Newell played an informal advisory role to Altman and Greg Brockman, adding another layer to the complex relationships at play in OpenAI's formative years. The emails depict the struggle between philosophical ideals versus business strategies, showcasing a tumultuous period in the company's history. However, many of these plans and roles did not ultimately come to fruition.

OpenAIAGI leadershipCorporate Control