OpenAI on Tuesday hit back at Elon Musk's lawsuit claiming the startup abandoned its original nonprofit mission by revealing communications showing the billionaire backed OpenAI's move to create a for-profit entity and suggested it should merge with Tesla.
We couldn't agree to terms on a for-profit with Elon because we felt it was against the mission for any individual to have absolute control over OpenAI," they continued. "He then suggested instead merging OpenAI into Tesla. In early February 2018, Elon forwarded us an email suggesting that OpenAI should 'attach to Tesla as its cash cow', commenting that it was 'exactly right… Tesla is the only path that could even hope to hold a candle to Google.