New OpenAI emails reveal a long history of mistrust

New emails released as part of Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI reveal that the company’s fondness of drama is hardly new.

The emails show that as early as 2017, Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever had serious concerns about Sam Altman. They cover a period where the organisation’s cofounders were deciding who should run it, and whether or not to become a for-profit entity.

In an email on September 20, 2017 signed by both Brockman and Sutskever, the two said that they “haven't been able to fully trust [Altman’s] judgements throughout this process”.

The two raised similar concerns about Musk. “You stated that you don't want to control the final AGI, but during this negotiation, you've shown to us that absolute control is extremely important to you,” they wrote to him. “We are concerned that as the company makes genuine progress towards AGI, you will choose to retain your absolute control of the company despite current intent to the contrary … it is a bad idea to create a structure where you could become a dictator if you chose to.”

Neither Altman nor Musk seem to have taken the criticism well. Two days after Brockman and Sutskever’s email, Shivon Zillis — a close Musk associate who advised OpenAI — Zillis summarised a conversation she had with Altman, who she said “admitted that he lost a lot of trust with Greg and Ilya through this process”.

Leave a Comment