OpenAI President Greg Brockman grilled over embarrassing diary entries while taking charitable donations from Elon Musk: What will take me to $1B?
OAKLAND, Calif.— OpenAI’s president Greg Brockman got grilled by Elon Musk’s lawyer on Monday over embarrassing diary entries from nearly a decade ago in which he fantasized about becoming a billionaire — even as the then-nonprofit charity got millions in donations from Musk.“Financially what will take me to $1B?” Brockman wrote in the digital journal in 2017, referring to the idea of converting OpenAI to a for-profit entity.“We’ve been thinking that maybe we should just flip to a for profit,” Brockman allegedly wrote.
“Making the money for us sounds great and all.”But Brockman — who, along with CEO Sam Altman, is being targeted by Musk for removal from OpenAI in a federal lawsuit in California that claims they violated the company’s charitable mission — also wrote down his reservations about the wildly lucrative game plan, court documents show.“Can’t see us turning this into a for-profit without a very nasty fight,” Brockman wrote in his diary.“It’d be wrong to steal the non-profit from him.
That’d be pretty morally bankrupt.”Brockman added, referring to Musk: “He’s really not an idiot.His story will correctly be that we weren’t honest with him in the end about still wanting to do the for-profit just without him.” Brockman said in his testimony that his stake in OpenAI is now worth nearly $30 billion.Musk’s attorney Steven Molo grilled Brockman over the explosive journal entries — which first surfaced in court papers in January — questioning how they squared with Brockman’s repeated claims that all business decisions focused on OpenAI’s mission of benefiting humanity. At one point, Molo raised his voice – “My question is very simple – you were worried about what will take me to $1 billion?”Brockman, at times visibly tense and uncomfortable, repeatedly insisted that his push to shift OpenAI to a for-profit entity was always meant to serve the mission and that any personal financial motivations ...