ChatGPT CEO talks Elon Musk feud, criticizes Biden admin AI regulation

OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman opened up about Elon Musk’s feud with him and his view of how regulations related to artificial intelligence (AI) development should be framed.

Altman appeared on an episode of The Free Press’ “Honestly with Bari Weiss” podcast that was released Thursday and was asked by Weiss about why Musk has publicly criticized him over AI safety concerns and sued to block OpenAI from creating a capped for-profit corporate structure after initially being founded as a non-profit.

Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI but cut ties with the company in 2018 after he was unable to persuade its other leaders to put him in charge of a for-profit OpenAI entity or merge the company with Tesla. Weiss noted that Musk has likened Altman to the “Little Finger” character who was an antagonist in the “Game of Thrones” series and that the xAI founder said he doesn’t trust Altman to lead a company that controls the world’s most powerful AI.

“I think it’s because he wants the most powerful AI in the world to be controlled by him,” Altman said. “And, again, I’ve seen Elon’s attacks to many other people, many friends of mine — everyone gets their period of time in his spotlight. But this all seems like standard behavior from him.”

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that he thinks Elon Musk’s lawsuit is because he wants to control the world’s most powerful AI. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

“I’m upset by it, for sure. I was talking to someone recently who I did think of as close and they said, like, ‘Elon doesn’t have any friends. Elon doesn’t do peers, Elon doesn’t do friends.’ And that was sort of a sad moment for me, because I do think of him as a friend,” Altman said. 

“I can look at this somewhat dispassionately, like I remember what it was like when he said OpenAI has a 0% chance of success and you guys are idiots and I’m pulling funding and I’m going to do my own thing,” he continued. 

“I remember what it was like when there were moments since then where it felt like he kinda wanted to reconcile and find a way to work together. And then I remember moments where he’s just like, you know, off doing his thing on Twitter. If it were only towards me, I think it would be much more painful,” Altman said. “But you know, I think you see who he is on Twitter, so I can, like, hold it somewhat impersonally and just be like, this is about Elon, not about me. It still sucks, I’ve had a long time to get used to it, I guess.”

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Elon Musk, left, and Sam Altman were among the co-founders of OpenAI, though Musk later cut off ties with the AI startup. (Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Vanity…