OAKLAND, Calif. \u2014 OpenAI\u2019s president Greg Brockman detailed a wild meeting in 2017 with Elon Musk in which the co-founders tussled over ownership stakes in the company \u2013\u00a0at one point claiming that he feared Musk \u201cwas going to physically attack me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Testifying on Tuesday in the second week of the bombshell trial over the future of OpenAI<\/a>, Brockman claimed Musk showed up to meet him along with other OpenAI top brass to negotiate their equity stakes in the for profit company that would eventually launch ChatGPT.<\/p>\n In the middle of talks, Brockman said Musk personally gifted free Teslas to him, Ilya Sutskever and others \u2014 a move Brockman saw as Musk \u201cbuttering us up\u201d and to make the co-founders feel \u201cindebted to him in some way.\u201d Likewise, Sutskever had given Musk a painting of a Tesla car, Brockman said.<\/p>\n OpenAI President Greg Brockman testified in Oakland federal court. REUTERS<\/p>\n But when the OpenAI co-founders rebuffed Musk\u2019s demand for a majority stake in the company \u2014 with Musk claiming he needed $80 billion to create a city on Mars \u2014 Musk went ballistic<\/a>, according to Brockman.<\/p>\n \u201cSomething really shifted in him,\u201d Brockman said of Musk. \u201cHe became angry and he went off from there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe stood up and he stormed around the table,\u201d Brockman continued. \u201cI was sitting in front of the painting and I actually thought he was going to hit me. I truly thought he was going to physically attack me. Instead, he just grabbed the painting and started to storm out of the room.\u201d<\/p>\n Musk then demanded to know when the group would leave OpenAI \u2014 and declared that he\u2019d withhold funding until they did.<\/p>\n Musk rejected Brockman\u2019s proposals for equal ownership stakes among the founders and his argument that no one person should control such powerful AI, according to Brockman.<\/p>\n \u201cHe said he had experienced what it was like to not have control and he didn\u2019t like it,\u201d Brockman said Elon had told him. Brockman added: \u201cHe said he needed the money for Mars. He said he needed $80 billion to create a city there<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Oakland federal courthouse. AP<\/p>\n The fiery meeting was just one tumultuous moment from the August and September period detailed by Brockman on Tuesday in Oakland federal court.\u00a0Just weeks earlier, Musk had invited the team to what he called a \u201chaunted mansion\u201d that he had recently bought near San Francisco.\u00a0<\/p>\n