One of the most interesting parts of Elon Musk’s testimony Tuesday in his lawsuit against OpenAI wasn’t the charity he claims was stolen from him (we all knew that would happen). It was about an old friend.
Musk testified that one of his main motivations for co-founding OpenAI was his feud with Google’s Larry Page over the safety of AI. Specifically, in the conversation, Mr. Musk raised the possibility that AI could wipe out humanity, and Mr. Page dismissed it by saying, “It’s okay” as long as the AI itself survives. Page called Musk “the most special person” because he is “so human.” Musk called that attitude “insane.”
It’s mainly notable considering how close the two were once. Fortune magazine included them on its 2016 list of secretly best friends business leaders. Mr. Musk was so comfortable with Mr. Page that they often clashed at their home in Palo Alto. Page once told Charlie Rose that he would rather donate his money to Musk than to charity.
That friendship didn’t survive OpenAI. When Musk hired Google’s AI star Ilya Satskeva to help launch the company in 2015, Page felt personally betrayed and cut off contact.
Musk has told this story before — including to Walter Isaacson, author of a best-selling biography of Musk — but Tuesday was the first time Musk has told it under oath. Page hasn’t commented, but it’s worth remembering everything Musk said for the lawsuit. Still, as recently as 2023, he told technology podcaster Rex Fridman that he wanted to mend things, saying, “We’ve been friends for a long time.”
