Musk Relitigates Old Friendship in OpenAI Trial

Elon Musk's testimony in his lawsuit against OpenAI took an unexpected turn on Tuesday, as he revealed a personal motivation for co-founding the company that had little to do with the charity he claims was stolen from him. Instead, Musk spoke about a falling-out with an old friend, Google's Larry Page, over AI safety. Musk recounted a conversation with Page in which he raised concerns about AI potentially wiping out humanity, only to be met with a shrug from Page, who deemed it "fine" as long as AI itself survived.

Page allegedly called Musk a "speciest" for prioritizing human life, a label Musk found "insane." This exchange is particularly notable given the close relationship the two once shared. Fortune had listed Musk and Page as secretly best-friend business leaders in 2016, and Musk had often spent time at Page's Palo Alto home. In fact, Page once told Charlie Rose that he would rather donate his money to Musk than to charity.

However, their friendship began to unravel when Musk recruited Google AI star Ilya Sutskever to help launch OpenAI in 2015, a move that Page felt was a personal betrayal. While Musk has shared this story before, including with author Walter Isaacson for his biography, Tuesday's testimony marked the first time he had made these claims under oath. Page has yet to comment on Musk's statements, which were made in the context of an ongoing lawsuit.

Despite their estrangement, Musk expressed a desire to reconcile with Page as recently as 2023, telling tech podcaster Lex Fridman that "we were friends for a very long time" and that he wanted to patch things up.