--- title: "Internal OpenAI Emails Show Employees Feared Elon Musk Would Control AGI" description: "Old emails between Elon Musk and two of his OpenAI confounders show just how afraid the firm was of an \"AGI dictatorship.\"" date: "2024-11-18" modified: "2024-11-18" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-emails-elon-musk-agi" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "OpenAI" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "ilya sutskever" - "OpenAI" - "the digest" --- # Internal OpenAI Emails Show Employees Feared Elon Musk Would Control AGI ![Old emails between Elon Musk and two of his OpenAI confounders show just how afraid the firm was of an "AGI dictatorship."]() *\Image: Joe Raedle via Getty\* ## Absolute Power During the discovery process in Elon Musk's lawsuit against Sam Altman, email exchanges from early in the group's history show that even early on, tensions flared over who would control the company's powerful creations. In one of these early emails submitted as [evidence exhibits in the *Musk vs. Altman* tria]()l, OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever took him to task for his egoistic need for control — and the dangers it could pose for any forthcoming human-level AI, better known as artificial general intelligence (AGI). "The current structure provides you with a path where you end up with unilateral absolute control over the AGI," Sutskever wrote to Altman and Musk in September of 2017. "You stated that you don’t want to control the final AGI, but during this negotiation, you’ve shown to us that absolute control is extremely important to you." "As an example, you said that you needed to be CEO of the new company so that everyone will know that you are the one who is in charge," he continued, "even though you also stated that you hate being CEO and would much rather not be CEO." ## Under Control Notably, the email was sent less than six months before Musk [resigned from OpenAI]() over disagreements about how the company should raise money — which is also [the crux of his lawsuit against Altman]() *et al* now. "We are concerned that as the company makes genuine progress towards AGI, you will choose to retain your absolute control of the company despite current intent to the contrary," Sutskever wrote. Similar concerns may well have inspired Sutskever to [lead a briefly successful coup against Altman]() last year before [his own apparent ouster]() this spring. As the rest of his scathing email to Musk shows, he had good reason for worry. "The goal of OpenAI is to make the future good and to avoid an AGI dictatorship," he wrote. "You are concerned that Demis \[Hassabis, the founder of Google's DeepMind AI lab\] could create an AGI dictatorship. So \[are\] we. So it is a bad idea to create a structure where you could become a dictator if you chose to, especially given that we can create some other structure that avoids this possibility." Reading the message in hindsight — especially after Sutskever's own exit and founding of a [new venture promoting AGI safety]() — is pretty chilling, especially as Musk's embrace of [embrace of president-elect Donald Trump]() reveals a deep thirst to control how the world is run. **More on Musk's control issues:** [*Elon Musk’s Daughter Vivian Says He’s a "Delusional and Grubby Little Control Freak"*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()