OpenAI fires back at Elon Musk in legal fight over breach of contract claims

OpenAI has hit back at Elon Musk's lawsuit accusing it of betraying its altruistic roots, claiming the Tesla chief executive had in fact supported the artificial intelligence company's plans to create a for-profit unit. Executives at the ChatGPT maker released a blogpost containing what it claimed was historical email correspondence with Musk in which the entrepreneur suggested merging the San Francisco-based startup with Tesla and said it should attach to the electric carmaker "as its cash cow". The blog, authored by OpenAI executives including its chief executive, Sam Altman, claims that in 2017 "we and Elon decided the next step for the mission was to create a for-profit entity". Last week Musk filed a lawsuit accusing OpenAI, where he was a founding board member, of deviating from its foundational mission by forming a for-profit unit – and putting making money before its core aim of producing technology for the benefit of humanity. "We're sad that it's come to this with someone whom we've deeply admired – someone who inspired us to aim higher, then told us we would fail, started a competitor, and then sued us when we started making meaningful progress towards OpenAI's mission without him," said OpenAI.