Greg Brockman describes 2017 dispute that led Musk to leave OpenAI

In short: OpenAI president Greg Brockman told a court how a 2017 power struggle led Elon Musk to stop funding OpenAI and later leave its board.

What happened

Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president, testified about a tense meeting in late August 2017, when OpenAI was still a small non-profit research lab. The group was discussing how to create a for-profit arm so it could raise more money to build stronger AI systems.

Brockman said Musk wanted full control of the new for-profit structure. Brockman described Musk as getting angry when the others would not agree. In Brockman’s account, Musk said, “I decline,” grabbed a painting that had been prepared as a gift, and asked Brockman, “When will you be departing OpenAI?”

Brockman said he and OpenAI researcher Ilya Sutskever did not leave and did not accept Musk’s plan. Brockman testified that Musk then stopped his regular donations to OpenAI’s operating budget, but continued paying for office space shared with Neuralink until 2020. Musk left OpenAI’s board in February 2018, voluntarily, according to the testimony.

The testimony came as part of a legal fight over OpenAI’s direction and structure. Lawyers on both sides are arguing about whether OpenAI’s shift toward a for-profit approach was handled fairly. Brockman also said the public release of his personal journal entries has been painful.

Why it matters

This case pulls back the curtain on how big AI organizations make decisions about money and control. It also helps explain why OpenAI ended up taking major funding from Microsoft after Musk left, and why Musk later sued his former cofounders.

Source: TechCrunch AI