OpenAI: Elon Musk has been pursuing profit since 2017

In a statement released by OpenAI, the company noted that Musk, who accused the company and its CEO Sam Altman of violating contract terms by prioritizing profit over public interest in their efforts to develop artificial intelligence, had actually wanted a for-profit structure during the early stages of the AI venture.

The statement, which included a timeline from the company's inception, recalled that it began as a non-profit organization in November 2015.

The statement indicated that in the summer of 2017, the company agreed with Musk that the next step to advance OpenAI's mission should be a for-profit entity, and noted that in the autumn of the same year, Musk demanded majority equity and to become the CEO of the for-profit company.

The statement noted that the company rejected Musk's terms, emphasizing that giving Musk unilateral control over OpenAI and its technology would be contrary to its mission.

The statement mentioned that this was Musk's fourth attempt in less than a year to reframe the allegations in his latest lawsuit against OpenAI, and included the following remarks:

"In 2017, Elon not only wanted a for-profit company as the new structure for OpenAI, he actually created it. When he couldn't get majority equity and full control, he walked away and told us we would fail. Now that OpenAI is a leading AI research lab and Elon is running a competing AI company, he is asking the court to effectively stop us from pursuing our mission."

OpenAI's statement also included screenshots of a series of emails and messages supporting these claims, including correspondence between Sam Altman and Elon Musk.

Musk had filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that it had abandoned its founding mission of developing artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity without profit, and claimed that the company had violated its founding agreement.

In an amendment to his complaint last month, Musk added antitrust allegations to the lawsuit and also included Microsoft, which has invested in the company, as a defendant.

News Source: AA