- Elon Musk compared OpenAI’s Sam Altman to a ‘Game of Thrones’ character in an X post.
- Musk’s comment followed Mira Murati’s announcement that she’s leaving her role as CTO of OpenAI.
- Murati announced her departure Wednesday, following the exit of cofounder Ilya Sutskever in May.
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Elon Musk seems to be throwing shade at Sam Altman.
The billionaire compared the OpenAI chief to a character from the hit TV show “Game of Thrones.”
In an X post on Wednesday night, he wrote, “Sam Altman is Little Finger,” referring to Petyr Baelish, an antagonist in the show known for his manipulative, ruthless, and cunning nature.
The post came in response to another user sharing four photos showing Sam Altman with former CTO Mira Murati and cofounders Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever. Each photo shows one of the four former executives removed from the images.
The post follows Murati’s announcement on Wednesday that she is leaving the company. This follows Sutskever’s departure in May and Brockman’s decision to go on sabbatical in August.
Musk also retweeted a post from another X user that included Altman’s comments from a podcast in May, in which he said he doesn’t need more money and that “If I were to say I’m going to try and make a trillion dollars with OpenAI it would save a lot of conspiracy theories.”
The post continued, “What I personally don’t like is the snakey ways Sam is doing all this.”
Musk appears to be referring to reports from Reuters and Bloomberg that OpenAI is gearing up to change its corporate structure into a for-profit business.
According to Bloomberg, OpenAI has discussed giving Altman a 7% equity stake in the company. As per a separate Bloomberg report, the company is talking to investors about raising funds at a $150 billion valuation, which would make Altman’s stake worth as much as $10.5 billion.
The ChatGPT maker now describes itself as a “capped-profit” company. In 2019, it created OpenAI LP, a for-profit and nonprofit hybrid. In a blog post at the time, OpenAI said the idea was for investors and employees to get a “capped return” if it successfully achieved its mission.
The Tesla CEO also wrote “Bullseye” in response to a clip posted on X of podcaster Joe Rogan seemingly mocking Altman for saying he doesn’t need money.
sued OpenAI, Altman, and Brockman
in March and accused the company of jeopardizing its nonprofit mission by partnering with Microsoft. OpenAI responded by
But Musk dropped the lawsuit in June and filed a fresh lawsuit against OpenAI in August, claiming cofounders Altman and Brockman “manipulated” him by playing on his concerns about AI safety.
Elon Musk and OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.