OpenAI worries Elon Musk could use his political power to influence industry competition

Since Trump’s November victory, OpenAI management has been preparing for the incoming U.S. administration, complicated by the emergence of Elon Musk as a key Trump confidant. OpenAI has been among Musk’s rivals trying to predict how he will use his newfound leverage in Washington, from pushing for new regulations against the company to influencing the award of government contracts that could boost Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI. “I have every confidence that Elon will do the right thing, and it would be extremely un-American to use political power to hurt a competitor and benefit his own business,” Sam Altman told a New York Times conference last week. Trump himself has said Musk would put the country’s interests above his company’s, while Musk has said on his social media platform X that rivals are “right” to expect him to be magnanimous. “No one will believe that,” said a lawyer who has angered Musk. Musk and Altman, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015, have a fractured relationship. Musk has described Altman as "Sam the Liar" and filed a lawsuit against Altman and OpenAI, accusing them of "systemic lying" while seeking to unwind its multibillion-dollar business partnership with Microsoft. OpenAI policy director Chris Lehane said Musk is "unique." Lehane, a political veteran who has helped companies like Airbnb and Coinbase overcome thorny regulatory hurdles, added that OpenAI's approach is to "control what we can control." According to Lehane, the company has highlighted its importance to Trump's agenda in three areas: improving U.S. competitiveness, rebuilding the economy and strengthening national security. Altman has also donated $1 million of his own money to Trump's inauguration fund. "At the end of the day, every American, whether in government or outside of it, wants to put America's interests first, and this administration has talked about the need for American-led AI to prevail during the campaign and since," Lehane said. "If you want that to happen, then OpenAI has to be involved." OpenAI has been at the forefront of AI companies since launching ChatGPT in November 2022. It is currently changing its structure in part to accommodate more outside investment to stay ahead, and Musk's lawsuit claims the move betrays OpenAI's original mission. On Friday, OpenAI fought back in a blog post, saying that Musk himself pushed for a similar structure in 2017 when he was still co-chairman. The company said Musk "should compete in the marketplace, not in court." Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn and a member of the Microsoft board of directors, OpenAI's biggest supporter, said he was "certainly concerned" that Musk's hostility toward Altman would be reflected in Trump's AI policies. “Obviously, people of integrity and character would say that since I’m involved in this type of litigation, I should distance myself from the government’s operations on these things,” Hoffman said, adding that it “speaks to potentially dangerous shortsightedness and dangerous conflicts of interest” if Musk blurs the lines between his personal views and larger geopolitical rules and structures. But people close to Musk say he is too principled to use his new role to impose onerous regulations on OpenAI, and that it would make no sense to do so given his role as co-chair of the US’s new “Department of Government Efficiency” to find ways to cut regulation. One person who has invested in Musk and Altman’s firm said: “You’ll see a lot of red tape cut out, and OpenAI will have a streamlined set of processes to get its data centers up and running quickly. It will apply to all its competitors as well.” However, according to an investor in one of Musk’s companies, Musk could use his central position in the new administration to promote xAI, and Hoffman, a former OpenAI board member, speculates that Musk could use his position to slow down xAI’s competitors. (FT)