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Inside the $44 Million OpenAI and Musk Lawsuit · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:01
  Hey everybody, welcome back to the Elon Musk podcast.
• 0:05
  This. Is a show where we discuss.
• 0:07
  The Critical. Crossroads that shape SpaceX
• 0:09
  Tesla X. The Boring Company and
• 0:12
  Neurolink. I'm your.
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  Host Will Walden. We have 3 burning questions
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  today. How did a $44 million donation
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  turn into a bitter legal battle between tech Titans?
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  What do private emails tell us about the real story behind Open
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  A is founding? And why are we seeing this power
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  struggle explode into public view now, just as AI tech
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  reaches new heights? So Elon Musk has recently
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  launched a legal offensive against artificial intelligence
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  company Open AI, on Friday, filing for a preliminary
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  injunction in the United States District Court for the Northern
• 0:52
  District of California. The motion seeks to prevent Open
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  AI, its leadership, and Microsoft from continuing what
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  Musk's attorneys characterize as actions contrary to the
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  organization's founding. Now the legal battle stems from
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  Open A IS transformation from a nonprofit entity into a profit
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  seeking enterprise, which is a shift that has sparked intense
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  debate. Now, court documents reveal that
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  Open A is inception in 2015 emerge from discussions between
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  Elon Musk and Sam Altman about preventing Google from
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  monopolizing advanced artificial intelligence development through
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  its acquisition of DeepMind. Now, early e-mail exchanges
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  between Elon Musk and Sam Altman unveiled in court filings paint
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  a picture of two tech visionaries united by a common
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  concern. Quote been thinking a lot about
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  whether it's possible to stop humanity from developing AI,
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  Altman wrote to Musk in May of 2015.
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  If it's going to happen anyway, it seems like it would be good
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  for someone other than Google to do it first.
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  Now, the relationship between Open AI founders began to
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  fracture almost immediately over questions of funding and
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  control. Now, despite public
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  announcements of $1 billion in committed funding, the nonprofit
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  received only approximately $130 million in donations during its
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  early years, creating tension between the ambitious goals of
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  the project and its financial reality.
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  The struggle to attract and retain top AI talent emerged as
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  a critical challenge for the fledgling organization. e-mail
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  correspondence shows Elon Musk advocating for competitive
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  compensation packages writing. Either we get the best people in
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  the world or we will get whipped by DeepMind.
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  This determination to compete with established players led to
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  six and seven figure salaries offerings for key researchers.
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  The proposed partnership with Microsoft in September of 2016
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  caused further strain among the founders.
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  The tech giant offered Open AI $60 million worth of cloud
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  computing access for just $10 million.
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  But the agreement including requirements for Open AI to
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  promote Microsoft's products now.
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  Musk's visceral response to that said this actually made me feel
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  nauseous. Highlighting the growing
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  divisions over Open A is direction now.
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  Internal conflicts reached 8 boiling point in August of 2017
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  when key team members expressed concerns about concentrated
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  power within the organization. An e-mail from Siobhan Zilis,
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  you know Tesla executive and Open AI advisor, detailed
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  worries about the control of artificial general intelligence
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  development, leading to heated exchanges between the founders.
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  Now the power struggle intensified through a series of
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  confrontational emails. Open a eyes.
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  Technical leaders challenge both Musk and Altman's motivation.
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  Writing to Musk, you see that you don't want to control the
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  final AGI, but during this negotiation you've shown to us
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  that absolute control is extremely important to you now.
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  Financial pressures continued to mount as open AIS ambitious
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  research agenda demanded substantial resources.
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  Altman proposed creating a cryptocurrency to raise funds in
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  January 2018, a suggestion that Musk firmly rejected as
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  potentially damaging to open AIS credibility.
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  Musk countered with a proposal to integrate Open AI into Tesla,
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  arguing it was quote the only path that could even hope to
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  hold a candle to Google Now. The dissolution of the founding
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  teams unity became complete when Musk departed Open AI in 2018.
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  The organization subsequently established a capped profit
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  subsidiary in March of 2019, allowing returns to investors up
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  to 100 times their initial investment while maintaining the
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  nonprofits oversight. Now, today's legal action or
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  Friday's legal action seeks to prevent several specific
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  activities, including discouraging investors from
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  backing opening eyes competitors and transferring assets to for
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  profit entities. Musk's attorneys argue that
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  irreparable harm will occur without court intervention,
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  writing plaintiffs in the public need a pause now.
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  The lawsuit names multiple defendants beyond Open AI,
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  including Microsoft, which is invested approximately $13
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  billion for a 49% stake in Open AIS earnings.
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  The complaint also targets Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn Co founder and
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  former Open AI member, board or board member Andy Templeton, a
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  Microsoft executive who briefly served as a non voting board
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  observer at Open AI. Now opening eyes.
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  Dramatic success with Chat TBT has transformed the company into
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  a dominant force in artificial intelligence, achieving the
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  market leadership position that its founders originally feared
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  that Google would capture. Now the success has come with
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  significant costs, as the company reportedly spends more
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  than $5 billion annually without achieving profitability.
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  The current conflict between Musk and Open AI extends beyond
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  the courtroom to public forums. While Musk established XAI as
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  his new artificial intelligence venture, Altman has publicly
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  criticized Musk's competing chatbot Grok on social media
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  platform X, questioning its claimed political neutrality.
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  Now, amid ongoing legal proceedings, Open AI continues
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  its commercial operations while maintaining that Musk's claims
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  lack merit. Company's spokesperson declined
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  to comment on the latest legal filing, though Open AI has
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  previously described Musk's lawsuit as blusterous and
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  without foundation. Now, the outcome of this legal
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  battle could reshape artificial intelligence development and
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  raise foundational questions about the balance between profit
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  motives and public benefit in advancing AI technology.
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  Now, as the court considers Musk's request for injunction,
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  we're going to have to wait and see what happens.
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  But this could influence how AI companies structure themselves
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  in the future and how they operate as nonprofits that turn
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  to for profit companies like Open AI did.
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  It reveals how early disputes over control, funding and
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  mission continue to shape development of artificial
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  intelligence technology, and not only the technology, but the
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  companies that build the new AGI and the artificial intelligence
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  development of the future. Hey, thank you so much for
• 7:28
  listening today. I really do appreciate your
• 7:30
  support. If you could take a second and
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  hit this subscribe or the follow button on whatever podcast
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  platform that you're listening on right now, I greatly
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  appreciate it. It helps out the show
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  tremendously and you'll never miss an episode.
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  And each episode is about 10 minutes or less to get you
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  caught up quickly. And please, if you want to
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  support the show even more, go to.
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  Patreon dot. Com slash.
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  Stage 0. And please take care of
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  yourselves and each other, and I'll see you tomorrow.