Elon Musk fixated on DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis during OpenAI founding
court documents from the elon musk v. sam altman trial reveal musk was obsessed with google deepmind ceo demis hassabis. musk repeatedly asked if hassabis was evil and warned openai was playing the 'puppy bowl' while google played the 'super bowl'. hassabis criticized openai's plan to open-source ai as 'very dangerous' in 2016 emails.
Testimony in the Musk v. Altman trial highlights Elon Musk's fixation on DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis during OpenAI's early years. Musk reportedly asked associates 'Is Demis Hassabis evil?' and warned that Google was playing the 'Super Bowl' while OpenAI was playing the 'Puppy Bowl.' A 2016 email exchange shows Hassabis explicitly disagreed with Musk and Altman's strategy to open-source AI, calling it 'very dangerous' and not a 'panacea.' Musk expressed concern that OpenAI's non-profit structure lacked the urgency to catch up to Google's progress.