OpenAI leadership rejects Elon Musk lawsuit – memo seen by reporters rebuts three main claims point by point

Sam Altman
(Image credit: OpenAI)

Senior OpenAI executives have circulated memos discussing the lawsuit Elon Musk’s lawyers filed in California on Thursday.  CNBC reports that one of the memos hints that the lawsuit may have been sparked by ‘Elon’s regrets’ in distancing himself from OpenAI a few years previously. Moreover, each pillar of Musk’s lawsuit is meticulously rebutted by the OpenAI execs, perhaps partly to calm staff nerves.

In our report on Friday, we talked about the main allegations of the plaintiff, Elon Musk. We considered the main complaint to be the alleged breach of OpenAI’s founding agreement. Other important threads within the lengthy filing raised concerns about the “grave threat to humanity” of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), and how OpenAI has become a “closed-source de facto subsidiary” of Microsoft. The filing also provided background to the complaints, such as an outline of Musk’s substantial donations when the organization operated as a non-profit.

Just ahead of the weekend, senior management figures at OpenAI, including Sam Altman (CEO) and Jason Kwon (Chief Strategy Officer, CSO), appear to have circulated internal memos to give employees an insight into their position, and likely to support company morale.

Altman’s memo is interesting as it contains quite a personal statement. According to CNBC, this memo recalls that Musk was once a hero of Altman and that the old version of the Tesla CEO is sorely missed. The OpenAI CEO went on to warn staff that attacks on the company are going to continue for the foreseeable future.

Kwon’s memo is much more matter-of-fact. In excerpts quoted by Axios, Kwon started by characterizing OpenAI as a law-abiding company that will responsibly cooperate with government requests. Then, Kwon sought to rebut what he considered to be Musk’s three main lawsuit claims.

On the topic of AGIs and their danger to humanity, Kwon did a sidestep by claiming GPT-4 is quite a long way from being an AGI. As evidence of this, he defined an AGI as a “highly autonomous system capable enough to devise novel solutions to longstanding challenges.” However, Kwon asserted “GPT-4 can't do that.”

Kwon also denied that OpenAI had abandoned its mission of benefitting humanity. The firm’s broadly available APIs and products were highlighted as important parts of the firm’s mission. Moreover, it was claimed the commercialization of the firm has delivered the capital to pay for vital guardrails for the technology.

Sam Altman, Satya Nadella

(Image credit: OpenAI)

Kwon also clarified the nature of OpenAI’s relationship with Microsoft. OpenAI’s CSO asserted that it is up to him and the other leadership figures how they research, build, and run the company. He also said that Microsoft is actually a competitor and that ChatGPT and ChatGPT for Enterprise were direct competitors for Microsoft’s Copilot and Copilot for Microsoft 365.

Mark Tyson
News Editor

Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

TOPICS
  • George³
    I suggest that management resign, leave ClosedAI, and permanently stop developing large language models in protest of the "false" of Elon's accusations and lawsuit filed. Of course, Sam Altman also needs to reduce the expected additions of $8 trillion to his personal fortune to zero.
    Reply
  • yahrightthere
    Headline: OpenAI leadership rejects Elon Musk lawsuit.
    What was the expected response suppose to be, an admission of guilt, a statement saying "oh yeah we're guilty on all counts" Lets not go to court or argue with Musk.
    I blame myself for falling for such tripe. I need to remind myself that most of what is written here is BS
    Reply
  • salgado18
    On the topic of AGIs and their danger to humanity, Kwon did a sidestep by claiming GPT-4 is quite a long way from being an AGI. As evidence of this, he defined an AGI as a “highly autonomous system capable enough to devise novel solutions to longstanding challenges.” However, Kwon asserted “GPT-4 can't do that.”
    Yet?

    Moreover, it was claimed the commercialization of the firm has delivered the capital to pay for vital guardrails for the technology.
    Maybe Musk would have given you the money if you asked, and thus staying a non-profit?

    OpenAI’s CSO asserted that it is up to him and the other leadership figures how they research, build, and run the company.
    In other words, "it's our company and not yours, so we can do what we want with it."

    They basically admit that Musk is right.
    Reply
  • chascho
    "GPT-4 can't do that" ... then what about q* ? Sounds like they are knowingly misleading people. We know q* exists. We also know it's not gtp4
    Reply
  • hotaru251
    salgado18 said:
    Maybe Musk would have given you the money if you asked, and thus staying a non-profit?
    ya...not smart there.

    you never want to rely on 1 person to fudn yourself...as if they disagree and pull out you have no fallback.
    salgado18 said:
    In other words, "it's our company and not yours, so we can do what we want with it."
    which is true.
    Musk may not liek it but it is NOT his company.
    salgado18 said:
    They basically admit that Musk is right.
    They didn't.
    You are assuming stuff not stated. (and assuming is never good to do)

    Musk has a widely known history of blaming others & lying for his benefit.
    chascho said:
    We know q* exists.
    based on rumors/claims w/o actual proof.

    also only thing rumored was it can do math programs outside what it was taught.
    Reply
  • Pierce2623
    OpenAI’s leading investor is actually a competitor? Me thinks you doth protest too much OpenAI.
    Reply