ELON Musk called himself a fool for investing in OpenAI as he testified in a major lawsuit he brought against the tech company he helped create in 2015.
Musk, the billionaire founder of SpaceX and Tesla, sued OpenAI for allegedly prioritizing profit after promising to keep the company a nonprofit dedicated to benefitting humanity.
Musk called himself a fool for providing funding to OpenAI when it was starting up Credit: Reuters
The tech giant who also owns X, formerly Twitter, said he continued to finance OpenAI after receiving assurance from the company’s CEO Sam Altman that the company would remain a nonprofit.However, Musk began to have doubts about the direction the company was heading, and said he felt betrayed.
“I was a fool who provided them free funding to create a startup,” Musk said on the witness stand in a California courtroom, per Wall Street Journal.
“I gave them $38 million of essentially free funding to create what would become an $800 billion company.”
Musk contributed millions of dollars to the company, now valued at $852billion, between December 2015 and May 2017.OpenAI established a for-profit subsidiary, OpenAI LP, a “capped-profit” company in March 2019 under the control of the nonprofit, with an obligation to “humanity as a whole,” TIME reported.
The move came after Musk left OpenAI’s board in 2018, three years after the company launched with Altman and Musk as its co-chairs.
Now, Musk claims his donations were used for unauthorized commercial purposes, CNBC reported.
“It’s not OK to steal a charity,” Musk said in a testimony on Tuesday.
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has claimed that Musk was aware of the company converting to a for-profit model, and said the tech giant supported the move.
The company previously shared emails that claimed to show Musk pushed for OpenAI to go for-profit while he was still at the company, allegedly saying OpenAI needed “billions per year immediately” to compete with Google.
OpenAI founders have alleged Musk launched his own AI competitor, xAI, after they refused to give him unilateral control of the venture.
Musk acknowledged xAI was “technically competitive” but said it was “much smaller than OpenAI.”
Musk was questioned on Wednesday by OpenAI and Altman’s attorney, William Savitt, about his initial commitment to donate $1billion.
“Did you contribute anywhere near to $1 billion to the organization?” Savitt asked.
“I contributed my reputation,” Musk replied. “These things all have value.”
Musk sued the company for over $180billion in damages and is asking the court to remove Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman from their leadership roles, the Wall Street Journal reported.
He also wants to unwind the company’s conversion to a for-profit subsidiary.
In October, OpenAI announced it completed a restructuring plan allowing the nonprofit to become a foundation with a $130 billion equity stake in a new public benefit corporation.
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