Elon Musk’s Plans for For-Profit AI Development With OpenAI

CapitalCraft
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This is a comprehensive and detailed conversation between Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI) and Elon Musk regarding the future direction and governance structure of OpenAI. Here’s a summary:

Background

  • In 2015, Elon Musk co-founded OpenAI with Sam Altman as CEO.
  • Over the years, there were disagreements on the direction and governance of the company.

Emails (2018-2023)

  1. December 26, 2018: Elon sent an email to Ilya Sutskever and Greg Brockman stating that OpenAI’s probability of being relevant without a dramatic change in execution and resources is 0%. He emphasized that raising several hundred million won’t be enough and that they need billions per year immediately.
  2. March 2023: Elon formed xAI, a public benefit corporation that directly competes with OpenAI.

OpenAI LP Announcement (March 2019)

  • Sam sent an advance copy of the OpenAI LP announcement blog post to Elon, who only requested to be explicit about having no financial interest in the for-profit arm of OpenAI.

Disagreements and Governance

  1. Offering equity: OpenAI offered Elon equity in the non-profit entity (OpenAI LP) multiple times, which he declined.
  2. Structural changes: Sam explained that they needed a change in governance structure to preserve their mission of "giving AGI to humanity" while attracting sufficient capital.

Recent Developments

  1. Shivon Zilis’s message: In October 2022, Shivon (an assistant to Elon) responded to a question about offering equity to Elon: "I don’t know what he means by A and B round." Sam replied that they had offered equity in the past but didn’t recall the details.
  2. Elon’s response: In October 2022, Elon texted that he would be in SF for the Twitter acquisition and suggested talking on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Key Points

  1. Elon Musk’s disagreement with OpenAI’s direction and governance structure.
  2. Formation of xAI as a direct competitor to OpenAI.
  3. Repeated offers of equity to Elon, which he declined.
  4. Disagreements over structural changes to preserve the mission while attracting sufficient capital.

Let me know if you’d like me to highlight any specific points or clarify any aspects!

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