Musk Tried to Recruit Altman to Tesla AI Lab in 2017 Emails Reveal
Original: Elon Musk’s Last-Ditch Effort to Control OpenAI: Recruit Sam Altman to Tesla
Why This Matters
Reveals Musk's early strategy to compete with OpenAI through talent acquisition rather than legal action
Court documents in Musk v. Altman trial show Elon Musk attempted to recruit OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to lead a rival AI lab at Tesla in 2017, offering him a board seat. Evidence presented Wednesday reveals Tesla planned a world-class AI unit to compete with Google DeepMind and Facebook AI Research.
Federal court testimony revealed Musk's efforts to recruit Altman months before leaving OpenAI's board in February 2018. Emails shown during cross-examination of Shivon Zilis, former OpenAI adviser and mother of four Musk children, detailed plans for Tesla's AI lab. A November 2017 email to Tesla's VP of communications outlined an FAQ for a NeurIPS conference event, stating Tesla was building a world-leading AI lab to rival Google DeepMind and Facebook AI Research. The document listed Altman's name with question marks, suggesting he could moderate the event as a forcing function for Sam to commit to TeslaAI. Musk's lawsuit claims Altman and Greg Brockman transformed his $38 million nonprofit investment into an $800 billion private company. OpenAI's lawyers argue Musk has sour grapes after failing to control OpenAI in 2017.