Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, doesn’t think too highly of his scorned former collaborator Elon Musk, saying he will do “all sorts” of bad things - but won’t use his newfound political influence to take down competitors.
Despite years of feuding and Musk leveling a dramatic lawsuit containing allegations of ethical violations against Altman and OpenAI, Altman defended Musk when asked if he thought Musk would use his political power and friendship with President-elect Donald Trump to target his rivals.
“Oh, I think he’ll do all sorts of bad s***,” Altman told Bloomberg in an interview on Sunday. “I think he’ll continue to sue us and drop lawsuits and make new lawsuits and whatever else.”
Altman continued, “... Will he abuse his political power of being co-president, or whatever he calls himself now, to mess with a business competitor? I don’t think he’ll do that. I genuinely don’t.”
Musk and Altman once sought to “save” humanity from the dangers of artificial intelligence through the co-founded company OpenAI – the parent company of ChatGPT.
However, a dispute over the direction of the company, and an internal power struggle, led to a falling out between the two. Musk ultimately left the company in 2018 and has since worked to create his own AI company.
The battle between Altman and Musk turned publicly nasty last year when Musk filed a lawsuit against the company and Altman claiming he and other executives breached the company’s founding agreement to benefit humanity over profit.
Musk made his feelings about Altman and OpenAI evident in mocking social media posts.
Musk dropped the lawsuit but filed another one against Altman and OpenAI, this time elevating his accusations to claim OpenAI worked with Microsoft, an investor, to create a monopoly. The billionaire also alleged the company violated its founding claim as a nonprofit by pursuing profit.
OpenAI has denied the allegations.
In December, the artificial intelligence company posted a lengthy, accusatory blog post that included screenshots of emails and texts showing Musk agreeing the company should pivot from nonprofit to for-profit.
They claimed Musk bitterly left the company after the board refused to make him CEO or agree to his suggestion to merge Tesla and OpenAI. They claim Musk started his artificial intelligence company, xAI, to compete directly with OpenAI.
“He says a lot of things, starts them, undoes them, gets sued, sues, gets in fights with the government, gets investigated by the government. That’s just Elon being Elon,” Altman told Bloomberg.
But Altman believes that he and Musk still share a “conviction” that artificial intelligence is important but needs to be handled carefully.
Despite Musk’s close proximity to Trump – having been named co-chair of the advisory board the Department of Government Efficiency – Altman does not think Musk would go so far as to use his power to quash a competitor.
“May turn out to be proven wrong,” Altman added.
