Court documents released on November 14 shed light on Elon Musk's role in halting OpenAI's plans to launch a cryptocurrency in 2018. The disagreement was one of the factors that led to the billionaire's departure from the company and has had a major impact on its future development.
Confronting Cryptocurrency
In early 2018, OpenAI co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman proposed issuing tokens as a way to address the organization’s financial difficulties. At the time, OpenAI, despite significant seed funding, including a $44 million contribution from Musk, was short of funds to realize its ambitious goals for safe AI.
Elon Musk, who served as co-chairman of the board, strongly opposed the idea. He feared that launching a cryptocurrency would undermine the company's reputation and its status as a non-profit. Musk argued that using cryptocurrency could be perceived as a departure from OpenAI's mission to develop safe and accessible AI for society.
Among the alternatives discussed, Musk proposed integrating OpenAI with Tesla to ensure stable funding. However, this idea also did not materialize.
Court battles and aftermath
The disagreements reached a peak in early 2018, after which Musk left #OpenAI to focus on his own projects, including his newly founded company #xai . His departure marked a turning point: a few years later, OpenAI changed its model from a non-profit to a for-profit, attracting investment from large corporations such as #Microsoft .
Musk's current legal battles with OpenAI and Microsoft have escalated the conflict between the former partners. In his updated lawsuit, Musk claims OpenAI violated agreements related to his funding and accuses the company of colluding with Microsoft.
The events highlight how early conflicts within OpenAI's leadership have affected the company's strategy and its relationships with key players in the tech industry.
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