At his OpenAI trial, Musk relitigates an old friendship

Among the astir absorbing parts of Elon Musk’s grounds Tuesday successful his suit against OpenAI wasn’t the foundation helium claims was stolen from him (we each knew that was coming). It was astir an aged friend.

Musk testified that 1 of his halfway motivations for co-founding OpenAI was a falling retired with Google’s Larry Page implicit AI information — specifically, a speech successful which Musk raised the imaginable of AI wiping retired humanity and Page shrugged it disconnected arsenic “fine,” truthful agelong arsenic AI itself survived. Page called Musk a “speciest” for being “pro human.” Musk called the cognition “insane.”

That’s mostly notable fixed however adjacent the 2 erstwhile were. Fortune included them connected its 2016 database of secretly best-friend concern leaders; Musk was truthful comfy with Page that helium regularly crashed astatine his Palo Alto home. Page erstwhile told Charlie Rose that he’d alternatively give his wealth to Musk than to charity.

The relationship didn’t past OpenAI. When Musk recruited Google AI prima Ilya Sutskever to assistance motorboat the institution successful 2015, Page felt personally betrayed and chopped disconnected contact.

It’s a communicative Musk has told earlier — including to writer Walter Isaacson for his bestselling biography of Musk — but Tuesday was the archetypal clip helium said it nether oath. Page hasn’t commented, and it’s worthy remembering everything that Musk said was successful work of a lawsuit. Still, arsenic precocious arsenic 2023 helium told tech podcaster Lex Fridman helium wanted to spot things up: “We were friends for a precise agelong time.”