Court Filings Show Musk, Altman Fixated on DeepMind's Demis Hassabis in 2016-2025 AGI Race
Updated
Updated · PC Gamer · May 12
Court Filings Show Musk, Altman Fixated on DeepMind's Demis Hassabis in 2016-2025 AGI Race
5 articles · Updated · PC Gamer · May 12
Newly surfaced emails, texts and 2025 testimony in the Musk-Altman case show Demis Hassabis repeatedly framed as the key rival to beat—or slow—in the race to control AGI.
2016 and 2018 messages capture Elon Musk warning OpenAI would get "whipped by DeepMind," saying humanity's future was "in the hands of Demis," while Shivon Zilis urged him to find a way to "slow Demis down."
2025 pre-trial testimony added outside confirmation: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Google and DeepMind were the dominant machine-learning force around 2015, and Musk said recruiting Ilya Sutskever from Google ended his friendship with Larry Page.
Other filings show the fixation spread across OpenAI's leadership, with Sam Altman writing about "race dynamics vs Demis," Mira Murati warning in 2023 against losing researchers to "Demis or Elon," and Ilya Sutskever cautioning against any AGI dictatorship.
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