Elon Musk says OpenAI was meant to challenge Google, not dominate AI

Elon Musk says one of his earliest efforts to prevent a single company from dominating artificial intelligence may have done the opposite. Speaking with Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of The Economist, the xAI founder said he backed OpenAI's creation to offset Google's near-total grip on AI at the time.

Musk said the plan did not unfold as intended. He pointed to Anthropic's later split from OpenAI and its current standing as an AI leader as evidence that his original move triggered effects he never anticipated, ultimately speeding up the broader race rather than slowing it.

Musk summed it up simply: every path in AI now leads toward faster development, not less.

Musk's comments come against the backdrop of his long-running dispute with OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman over the company's shift from a non-profit research lab to a commercial giant.

Musk had sought $150 billion in damages from OpenAI, Altman, Microsoft and other parties, but a federal jury in Oakland found in May that his claims fell outside the statute of limitations, and Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers dismissed the case on that basis. Musk has said he intends to appeal to the Ninth Circuit.

Despite the legal feud between him and Altman, Musk was rather friendly towards Anthropic, as he said the reason why the people from that organisation left OpenAI is that they lost trust in the leadership of Altman and referred to Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, as a principled person who is really worried about the future of AI.

Musk suggested that there should be a period of one or two weeks during which the leading AI organisations have a chance to evaluate their rivals' models before launching them, because the rival checking the rival can only make the former tell the truth.