OpenAI pushes back on Elon Musk lawsuit, says he suggested merger with Tesla

OpenAI on Tuesday hit back at Elon Musk’s lawsuit claiming the startup abandoned its original nonprofit mission by revealing communications showing the billionaire backed OpenAI’s move to create a for-profit entity and suggested it should merge with Tesla.

Musk, who was among OpenAI’s co-founders in 2015, filed a lawsuit last week alleging that the company breached its founding agreement to develop artificial intelligence (AI) for the benefit of humanity, rather than for profit, by partnering with Microsoft. Musk resigned his board seat at the company in 2018, thinking OpenAI had fallen behind Google in the AI race and that there may be a conflict of interest given his pursuit of AI initiatives