Dirty Laundry

Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios.
Photos: Jim Lo Scalzo/Bloomberg and Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Dirty laundry and an expose of two entities bent on accruing ever more power and money with no regard for the public good applies. Tawdry says it all but is anyone surprised? Yours truly certainly isn't.

The biggest tech trial of the AI era — which ended anticlimactically Monday on procedural grounds — revealed a sector consumed by the same power struggles and profit motives its leaders once warned would corrupt artificial intelligence.

Why it matters: The trial cemented a growing public fear about AI: that the people racing to control the world's most powerful technology are driven less by humanity-saving ideals than by money, power and personal rivalries.

The big picture: OpenAI's founders originally positioned themselves as an alternative to Google DeepMind, fearing a single tech giant would monopolize transformative AI systems.

But testimony and internal documents showed the organization's leaders quickly became consumed by power struggles.

OpenAI executives worried in 2017 that Elon Musk "could become a dictator" and sent him an email with the subject line "honest thoughts." Musk responded saying "I've had enough" and later suggested the company be folded into Tesla.

Among the court documents were texts Sam Altman sent during his brief 2023 ouster, including him pleading repeatedly to attend board meetings and being rejected. The trial also confirmed reports that OpenAI met with Anthropic to discuss a potential merger at that time.

What they're saying: "Does anybody really believe that love of humanity is driving any of this? It's power," Anthony Aguirre, CEO of the Future of Life Institute, which focuses on AI governance, told Axios.

In essence, this was both a nothing burger and an airing out of dirty laundry at the public's expense.