What’s The Beef Between Elon Musk And Sam Altman?

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Key Takeaways:

• Elon Musk and Sam Altman were once collaborators in the founding of OpenAI in 2015, but their relationship has since deteriorated into a bitter rivalry.

• Musk stepped down from OpenAI's board in February 2018, officially citing potential conflicts of interest with Tesla, which was also developing AI for self-driving cars. However, reports suggest the split was more contentious, with Musk expressing frustrations over OpenAI's direction.

• Musk has also repeatedly criticized Altman and OpenAI, accusing them of abandoning transparency and open-source principles.

By now, you may all know ChatGPT, the wildly popular chatbot created by the company called OpenAI. And you may have heard something about a conflict between two tech leaders connected to it.

In this article, we will explain how Elon Musk and Sam Altman go from being business partners to enemies and the reason behind their conflict.

How OpenAI Was Established?

Sam Altman is one of the leading artificial intelligence researchers and the current CEO of OpenAI. With him was Elon Musk in 2016.

In 2014, Google bought DeepMind, one of the leading AI research companies, which made many people concerned.

Before, AI research was like playing with fire. Any company that creates advanced AI is just one step away from developing something like Skynet or the machines from The Matrix. And if a faceless mega-corporation develops such a technology, controlling it would be incredibly challenging.

So, a group of prominent figures from Silicon Valley, led by Musk and Altman, came together to create a counterbalance to Google—a nonprofit organization dedicated to researching AI for the benefit of humanity, not for profit (you’ll understand why I highlighted those words later on).

Then, they created OpenAI. Altman brought his expertise in the field while Musk pledged to invest $1 billion over five years.

The team also included a lot of other famous researchers and entrepreneurs united by a single goal: creating good AI and maybe saving the world in the process.

For several years, things seemed fine…until they didn't.

Struggle For Power

In 2018, Google made several breakthrough advancements in AI, and Musk became discontent. He started criticizing the organization, saying that it had fallen behind and was no longer competitive. He then offered to become the president of OpenAI to save it. When Altman and others refused, Musk left, withdrawing most of the pledged investment.

According to Musk, there were several reasons for that. For one, he and Altman had disagreements about the company's direction. In addition, there were conflicts of interest with Tesla's own AI technology development. However, many others believed Musk was angry about his unsuccessful takeover attempt.

So, OpenAI seemed done for—it was behind in research, and it had just lost its biggest investor. The non-profit had no future, but then came the twist.

Microsoft Enters

In 2019, OpenAI announced that it would shift from its non-profit beginnings to becoming a for-profit organization. Altman highlighted:

It started hunting for investors that would leverage its cutting-edge research for revenue. They struck gold, with Microsoft investing $10 billion into OpenAI, essentially turning OpenAI into one of Microsoft's ventures and securing it as a valuable asset in competition with Google.

Balancing Ethics And Ambition: The Struggle To Stay True To OpenAI's Original Mission

So, how did that align with its original goals of working for the benefit of humanity? 

According to Altman, the main mission did not change. Workers of OpenAI adhered to a strict code of ethics, implemented caps on profit, and generally tried not to become the very thing they swore to destroy.

However, some employees were not convinced and left.

Musk is already one of the most outspoken critics of the change, and he started criticizing Altman and his company with ever-growing vigor.

OpenAI’s Rise

By 2021, OpenAI released DALL-E, an AI that could generate images with yet unseen proficiency. 

In 2022, ChatGPT came out—an advanced chatbot that instantly captured the world's attention.

Elon Musk Opens Bid To Buy OpenAI For $97.4 Billion

Recently, a group of investors led by Elon Musk offered to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI for $97.4 billion, escalating a clash between the Tesla chief executive and the artificial intelligence company he co-founded.

With the unsolicited bid, Musk said he hopes to return OpenAI to being “the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” according to a statement.

In response, Altman posted on Musk’s X social-media platform: “No thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”

Final Thoughts

So, this is the essence of the conflict between Musk and Altman. The men who started something great with a noble goal in mind but fell out and are slowly turning into sworn enemies.

What is the real reason for their beef? Is Musk salty because he lost power over OpenAI before it became the hottest thing in tech? Or is he genuinely concerned about humanity's future and believes that Altman lost his way? Only they know for sure.