Brockman rebuts Musk’s take on startup’s history
OpenAI President Greg Brockman wrapped up his testimony on Tuesday, where he largely rebutted Elon Musk’s account of the start-up and early years of negotiations at the company.
Brockman stated that he had not made any commitments to Musk regarding the corporate structure of the company and that he had never heard of anyone else making such a commitment. He emphasized that OpenAI is still run by a non-profit organization.
“This entity remains a non-profit organization,” Brockman said, referring to the OpenAI foundation. “It is the best-resourced nonprofit organization in the world.”
The hearing of Musk’s lawsuit against the artificial intelligence company began its second week on Monday.
Two years ago, Musk sued OpenAI, Brockman and CEO Sam Altman, alleging that they violated their obligation to keep the company a nonprofit organization. Musk testified during the first week of the trial, where he repeatedly accused Altman and Brockman of trying to “steal a charity.”
Speaking on the witness stand for two days in federal court in Oakland, California, Brockman also revealed that Musk had assigned several OpenAI employees to do unpaid work for him for months. Tesla’sMusk’s electric vehicle company.
That work mainly involved his efforts in 2017 as part of the Autopilot team to overhaul the company’s approach to developing autonomous driving technology.
During his two days at the booth, Brockman answered questions about his personal financial goals, his understanding of OpenAI’s structure and Musk’s involvement in the company, which he founded with other executives in 2015.
In Musk’s testimony last week, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO said the time, money and resources he devoted to OpenAI were integral to the company’s success. He has repeatedly said he helps hire the company’s top talent.
Brockman said Tuesday that Musk was helpful in convincing some employees to take the step to join OpenAI, but was a polarizing figure for others.
“Elon was known as an extremely tough driver,” Brockman said. He added that Musk’s involvement in OpenAI “made a big impression on certain candidates” and that “some candidates were very cold.”
Musk said last week that a former OpenAI researcher named Andrej Karpathy joined Tesla, but only after he planned to leave the startup.
Brockman said that after Musk hired Karpathy, he approached him “with an apology and a confession” about the hiring, and that before that, neither Musk nor Karpathy had told him that the researcher planned to leave OpenAI.
Brockman said Musk is generally not available for meetings and conversations, so he relies on employees, including Sam Teller and former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis, to act as proxies.
Brockman also stated that Musk has never expressed interest in open-sourcing OpenAI technology and has not taken any steps to formally request it from the non-profit organization.
Musk has repeatedly suggested at the podium that open-sourcing OpenAI models should be a core tenant of the organization.
“It wasn’t a topic of conversation, to be honest,” Brockman said.
Around 2017, Musk, Altman, and Brockman participated in discussions about OpenAI’s direction and explored creating a for-profit subsidiary in which Musk would hold an equity stake. Musk left the company’s board in 2018, and following his departure, OpenAI formed a for-profit arm.
Brockman testified Tuesday about Musk’s angry reaction to him and other co-founders when they tried to negotiate who should own what shares in a for-profit subsidiary of OpenAI.
When their conversation turned to the topic of equality, Brockman said “something has really changed” with Musk.
“Something changed inside him. You could feel it. He was angry, he was upset,” Brockman said.
He said Musk rejected the offer during a face-to-face meeting, then ripped a picture of his Tesla Model 3 car from the wall and began storming out of the room.
Before leaving, Brockman said Musk had returned and wanted to know when he and his co-founders would leave the company. He said he was afraid Musk might hit him at the time.
Brockman’s financial situation
On Monday, Musk’s lawyer, Steven Molo, pressed Brockman about his equity stake in OpenAI’s for-profit subsidiary, worth about $30 billion. Molo repeatedly pointed out that Brockman never followed through on his offer to contribute $100,000 or any cash to the nonprofit.
“I didn’t donate, that’s true,” Brockman said from the podium.
Brockman kept a diary to document events in his life, both personal and professional, and Molo pointed out several entries during questioning; quotation 2017, “What will get me to $1 billion financially?”
Molo questioned whether Brockman was more interested in funding the nonprofit or becoming a billionaire and enriching himself. Brockman said OpenAI’s mission “has always been my primary motivation” and that being fairly compensated for his work as a founder was a secondary consideration.
Brockman expressed that he thought he would be “fine” with a $1 billion stake, and Molo repeatedly called out his choice of words.
Molo asked Brockman why he didn’t donate the other $29 billion in equity back to the nonprofit now known as the OpenAI Foundation. Brockman didn’t have a clear answer.
The hearing will continue Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. PT. Former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis, the mother of Musk’s four children, is expected to testify.
