OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who is in a legal dispute with rival Elon Musk, said he is 鈥渘ot that worried鈥� about Musk's influence in the incoming Trump administration.
Altman told a New York Times conference Wednesday that he 鈥渕ay turn out to be wrong鈥� but he strongly believes that Musk will do the right thing.
"It would be profoundly un-American to use political power, to the degree that Elon has it, to hurt your competitors and advantage your own businesses," Altman said. "And I don鈥檛 think people would tolerate that. I don鈥檛 think Elon would do it.鈥�
Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company earlier this year alleging that the maker of ChatGPT betrayed its founding aims of benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits. Musk recently escalated the lawsuit by asking a federal judge to stop to convert itself into a for-profit business more fully.
President-elect Donald Trump is putting Musk, the world鈥檚 richest man, and , an entrepreneur and former Republican presidential candidate, Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which is an outside advisory committee that will work with people inside the government to reduce spending and regulations.
Musk, whose companies include Tesla, SpaceX and social media platform X, has started his own rival AI company, xAI, that Altman said he considers a serious competitor.
Asked about his frayed relationship with Musk, Altman said he felt 鈥渢remendously sad鈥� but also characterized Musk's legal fight as one about business competition.
鈥淗e鈥檚 a competitor and we鈥檙e doing well,鈥� Altman said.
Altman also addressed another pending lawsuit against OpenAI from The New York Times, host of Wednesday's DealBook summit of business and political leaders.
The Times is among several news outlets that have sued San Francisco-based OpenAI and its business partner Microsoft for copyright infringement in the use of news articles to train AI systems like ChatGPT. The companies have argued they are protected by the 鈥渇air use鈥� doctrine of copyright law.
鈥淚f an AI reads something 鈥� a physics textbook 鈥� it can learn physics, it can use that for other things like a human can,鈥� Altman said.
Lawyers for both sides gathered before a New York federal magistrate judge Tuesday for more than four hours to work out disagreements over how they would collect potential evidence from one another. Depositions are set to begin in January. A lawyer for the newspapers said in court that the publications have confirmed millions of news articles were used for AI training.
鈥淟ook, I don鈥檛 believe in showing up in someone else鈥檚 house as a guest and being rude, but I will say, I think The New York Times is on the wrong side of history in many ways,鈥� Altman told Times journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin during the on-stage interview Wednesday.
鈥淲e could discuss and debate that and we鈥檒l do that, I think, in court,鈥� Sorkin responded, to laughter from the audience.
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Associated Press writer Larry Neumeister in New York contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press and OpenAI have a allowing OpenAI access to part of the AP鈥檚 text archives.
Matt O'brien, The Associated Press
