Former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever has made explosive revelations during the ongoing legal battle between OpenAI and Elon Musk, shedding fresh light on the infamous firing of Sam Altman in 2023.
Testifying in a California courtroom on Monday, Sutskever revealed that he had spent nearly a year collecting evidence for the OpenAI board that allegedly showed Altman had a “consistent pattern of lying.”
According to Reuters, Sutskever said he had been considering removing Altman as CEO well before the dramatic November 2023 boardroom shake-up and had discussed the possibility “for a long time” with former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati.
Sutskever testified that Altman’s conduct included “undermining and pitting executives against one another.”
“Altman’s conduct was not conducive to any grand goal,” Sutskever said during testimony, referring to OpenAI’s mission of building safe artificial general intelligence (AGI).
However, after backlash from employees over Altman’s removal, Sutskever later reversed course and publicly expressed regret over his “participation in the board’s actions,” eventually voting to reinstate Altman as CEO.
Sutskever rejects Musk’s nonprofit claim
In a setback for Musk, Sutskever also testified that he never promised the billionaire that OpenAI would permanently remain a nonprofit organisation.
“I made no such promise,” Sutskever said, adding, “The mission of OpenAI is larger than its nonprofit or for-profit structure.”
The former chief scientist also revealed that he had opposed Musk’s earlier proposal to merge OpenAI with Tesla.
OpenAI-Anthropic merger discussions revealed
In another major revelation, Sutskever confirmed that OpenAI board members briefly explored merger discussions with rival AI startup Anthropic during Altman’s temporary ouster.
According to Reuters, the remaining OpenAI board discussed a proposal under which Anthropic could merge with OpenAI and potentially take over leadership of the company. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had previously served as OpenAI’s Vice President of Research before leaving in 2021 to launch Anthropic.
Sutskever said he was “not excited” about the possibility of merging OpenAI with another company.
After Altman’s removal, Sutskever eventually signed a petition backed by OpenAI employees calling for Altman’s return, describing the move as a “Hail Mary” to stop the company from being “destroyed,” according to Forbes.
The AI researcher also revealed details about his OpenAI stake, saying it was worth roughly $5 billion in November last year and has since risen to around $7 billion. OpenAI president Greg Brockman had also recently stated that his equity stake in the company was valued at nearly $30 billion.
OpenAI recently closed a massive funding round that reportedly valued the company at around $852 billion.
Musk, who co-founded OpenAI alongside Altman, Brockman and Sutskever in 2015, has accused the company of abandoning its original mission of developing AI for the benefit of humanity in favour of profit-driven goals.
The billionaire is currently seeking up to $150 billion in damages in the lawsuit, alongside the removal of Altman and Brockman from leadership positions at OpenAI.
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