Elon Musk ‘Very Worried’ About OpenAI Boardroom Battle

AUSTIN, Texas — Amid the OpenAI boardroom battle, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is one of the co-founders of the high-profile tech startup, expressed his two cents on the unsavory developments.

What Happened: Amid the weekend developments that saw the ouster of Sam Altman as OpenAI CEO, Musk commented on a post on X by the tech startup’s chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, who is rumored to be behind the boardroom coup.

“If you value intelligence above all other human qualities, you’re gonna have a bad time,” said Sutskever in a post on October 6. 

“This is the scariest quote I’ve read in a long time. A long time,” responded Musk to the post on Sunday with “Uh oh” expression. A Tesla influencer and YouTuber commented on Sutskever’s post.

“I am very worried.” said Musk while replying to the post. “Ilya has a good moral compass and does not seek power,” said the billionaire. “He would not take such drastic action unless he felt it was absolutely necessary,” he added.

Although neither Altman nor any of the board members clarified on the reason for the former’s ouster, the latter said the ex-CEO was not transparent in his communications with the board. Rumors suggest that Altman’s efforts to set up an AI chip startup might have been the trigger.

“There are reports that Mr Altman was considering some hardware projects, including the funding and development of an AI chip, which would have been quite a different direction in which to take OpenAI. Had he made some commitments that the board was not aware of?” posed an observer. 

Musk, who invested $50 million in OpenAI in its early days, quit the company in 2018. He has previously expressed worries about the startup becoming profit-driven instead of the original thinking of running it as a non-profit, open-sourced entity. OpenAI in January announced a $10 billion investment from Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT).

“But we know that OpenAI was founded as a non-profit organization. That means, a company which does not aim to make money. It takes back enough of what it brings in to cover its own running costs – and any extra gets invested back into the business. Most charities are non-profits,” noted one of the board members. 

The Tesla CEO is also among the tech entrepreneurs who have raised concerns about a lack of regulation of artificial intelligence technology.

Produced in association with Benzinga