Musk’s fixation on Google AI chief Demis Hassabis highlighted in trial testimony
Key Points
- Greg Brockman testified that Elon Musk repeatedly asked, "Is Demis Hassabis evil?" during early OpenAI discussions.
- Musk forwarded a 2016 warning from Hassabis that OpenAI's open‑source approach was "dangerous" and not a cure‑all.
- Emails from 2017 and 2018 show Musk fearing DeepMind's rapid progress and questioning OpenAI's non‑profit model.
- Musk considered merging OpenAI into Tesla to secure the capital needed to compete with Google.
- Board member Shivon Zilis urged Musk to "slow down" Hassabis, warning of severe future risks.
- By late 2018, Musk wrote that OpenAI's chance of matching DeepMind was "0%" and that humanity's future rested with Hassabis.
During the high‑profile lawsuit between Elon Musk and OpenAI co‑founder Sam Altman, testimony revealed that Musk repeatedly mentioned Google DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis. Court transcripts show Musk called Hassabis "evil," worried about Google’s lead in artificial intelligence, and exchanged a series of urgent emails warning that OpenAI could not keep pace. Witnesses, including OpenAI president Greg Brockman, confirmed Musk’s obsession with the British scientist, describing it as a driving force behind strategic discussions at Tesla and beyond.
In a courtroom that has become a stage for the tech industry’s most heated rivalry, testimony this week shed new light on Elon Musk’s long‑standing preoccupation with Demis Hassabis, the founder of Google DeepMind. During cross‑examination, OpenAI president Greg Brockman recounted how Musk mentioned Hassabis "many, many times" in the early days of OpenAI, labeling the DeepMind chief as a potential threat.
According to the record, Musk’s concern went beyond casual curiosity. In an email to Brockman and fellow co‑founder Ilya Sutskever, Musk asked bluntly, "Is Demis Hassabis evil?" The question, Brockman said, set the tone for a series of internal discussions that framed Google’s AI advances as a looming challenge to Musk’s own ventures.
The testimony also revealed a chain of emails dating back to 2016. Musk forwarded a message from Hassabis that warned OpenAI’s open‑source ambitions were "actually very dangerous" and could not be a "panacea" for the AI problem. The tone of the exchange suggested Musk perceived the DeepMind leader not only as a competitor but as a possible obstacle to his vision of AI development.
Further documentation shows Musk’s anxiety escalated over the next two years. A 2017 email to his Neuralink associates described DeepMind as moving "very fast" and expressed regret that OpenAI’s non‑profit structure might have hampered its ability to compete. By early 2018, Musk wrote that OpenAI was on a "path of certain failure relative to Google" and contemplated folding the startup into Tesla to secure the resources needed to match DeepMind’s scale.
Shivon Zilis, an OpenAI board member at the time and now a mother of four with Musk, entered the correspondence as well. She urged Musk to "slow down" Hassabis, warning that without such action the future could be jeopardized. Musk’s reply indicated a mix of frustration and resignation, acknowledging the difficulty of influencing the DeepMind chief’s trajectory.
By the end of 2018, Musk’s confidence in OpenAI’s ability to serve as a counterweight to Google had eroded. In a candid email, he wrote that his probability assessment of OpenAI remaining relevant to DeepMind was "0%" and that humanity’s future now lay in Hassabis’s hands. The stark language underscored how central the rivalry had become in Musk’s strategic calculations.
While the courtroom drama continues, the emerging picture is clear: Musk’s fixation on Hassabis shaped internal debates, resource allocations, and even potential mergers within his broader business empire. The testimony offers a rare glimpse into the personal anxieties that can drive corporate strategy in the fast‑moving world of artificial intelligence.