What Mr. Musk has said about Mr. Altman
Post on X, in November:
“What matters is having directors who deeply understand AI and will stand up to Sam. Human civilization is at stake here.”
At The New York Times’s DealBook Summit, in November:
“I have mixed feelings about Sam. The ring of power can corrupt, and he has the ring of power. So I don’t know.”
“I’m quite concerned that there’s some dangerous element of A.I. that they’ve created.”
“Mr. Altman caused OpenAI to radically depart from its original mission and historical practice of making its technology and knowledge available to the public.”
What Mr. Altman has said about Mr. Musk
In a Vanity Fair interview, in December 2015:
“I really trust him, which is obviously important to everyone involved.”
In a personal blog post, in January 2019:
“I remember when Elon Musk took me on a tour of the SpaceX factory many years ago. He talked in detail about manufacturing every part of the rocket, but the thing that sticks in memory was the look of absolute certainty on his face when he talked about sending large rockets to Mars. I left thinking, ‘Huh, so that’s the benchmark for what conviction looks like.’”
In a tweet, in May 2019:
“It’s gross seeing so many root against Tesla. Be the person on the side of the climate and innovation, not the person hoping to make money on puts. Also, betting against Elon is historically a mistake …and the best product usually wins.
(Mr. Musk wrote back: “Thanks Sam!”)
In the “On With Kara Swisher” podcast, in March 2023:
“He’s a jerk, whatever else you want to say about him — he has a style that is not a style that I’d want to have for myself. But I think he does really care, and he is feeling very stressed about what the future’s going to look like for humanity.”
In the “In Good Company” podcast, in September:
“Elon was definitely a talent magnet and attention magnet, for sure, and also just like has some real superpowers that were super helpful to us in those early days, aside from all of those things.”
What Mr. Musk and Mr. Altman said about A.I. in joint appearances:
In a conversation at Vanity Fair’s New Establishment, in October 2015:
Mr. Altman: “The happy vision of the future is humans and A.I. in a symbiotic relationship, distributed A.I., sort of empowers a lot of individuals, not this single A.I. that kind of governs everything we all do that’s a million times smarter than any other entity.
Mr. Musk: “I agree with what Sam said. We are effectively already a human machine collective symbiot, like a giant cyborg.”
In an interview Mr. Altman conducted with Mr. Musk, in September 2016:
Mr. Altman: “Speaking of really important problems — A.I. — you have been outspoken about A.I. Could you talk about what you think the positive future for A.I. looks like and how we get there?”
Mr. Musk: “So I think we must have democratization of A.I. technology, make it widely available, and that’s the reason that obviously you, me, and the rest of the team, created OpenAI was to help with the, help spread out A.I. technology so it doesn’t get concentrated in the hands of a few.”
Cade Metz contributed reporting.
