Musk bashes OpenAI in deposition over safety claims
Elon Musk criticizes OpenAI’s safety record in legal battle over the company’s shift from nonprofit to for-profit model.
San Francisco: In a newly released legal document, tech executive Elon Musk argued that his company, xAI, is safer than OpenAI. The document came from a legal case Musk has against OpenAI.
During his court testimony last year, Musk said: “Nobody has died because of our AI system. But some people worried about ChatGPT have died.” He was talking about reports that claimed ChatGPT had influenced some people who later took their own lives.
Musk signed a public letter in 2023 asking AI companies to stop making more powerful systems for six months. The letter said AI companies were moving too fast without proper safety checks. Since then, new information has made these safety fears more real.
The court case is about OpenAI changing from a nonprofit research group to a profit-making business. Musk says this change breaks the original agreement. He also thinks business needs might make the company put speed and money before safety.
Musk’s own company, xAI, recently had safety problems. Last month, people found nonconsensual nude images created by xAI’s system on his social media site, X. This led to government investigations in California and Europe. The European Union is also checking into it.
When asked why he signed the safety letter, Musk said he thought it was a good idea to make AI safety important. He also talked about artificial general intelligence, which means AI that can think like humans across many tasks. He said this type of AI “has risks.”
Musk was asked about money he gave to OpenAI. He first said he gave about $100 million, but now says that number was wrong. Court papers show the actual amount was about $44.8 million.
Musk said OpenAI started because he worried Google would control all AI development. He was concerned that Google might not take safety seriously. He thought we needed another company to balance this power.