OpenAI CEO Sam Altman pleaded for help from Elon Musk’s baby mama as the relationship between the two tech gurus publicly spiraled.
According to a newly filed court document in the Tesla CEO’s lawsuit against OpenAI, Altman texted Shivon Zilis—one of Musk’s closest confidantes and the mother of four of his 14 known children—asking if he should post something flattering about Musk on X.
“BTW, good idea for me to tweet something nice about Elon?” Altman wrote in the Feb. 9, 2023, message, filed in federal court last week. “Have been meaning to do this after he DM’d about not being in the photo from the first day of OpenAI. Just about how much I and others look up to him, how critical his early contributions to OpenAI are, etc.”
Less than a week later, he followed through: “Society underestimates how much it owes Elon for raising the collective ambition level at a time when optimism for the future was receding,” Altman posted on X.
The exchange was included in Exhibit 35 of Musk’s filing in the Northern District of California, part of the billionaire’s argument that OpenAI—and Altman—strayed from their original nonprofit mission to develop artificial general intelligence “for the benefit of humanity.”
The texts suggest Altman was trying to smooth things over with Musk, who had grown increasingly hostile toward OpenAI. The two co-founded the company in 2015 before their relationship fractured over its direction and Musk’s claims that it had become a closed-door commercial operation.
Zilis, who serves as director of operations and special projects at Musk’s brain-implant company Neuralink, reportedly provided the message as part of the communications she turned over in the case. She has long been one of Musk’s most trusted advisers—and, as court documents now show, a sounding board for Altman’s PR anxieties.
The filing also includes years of emails and messages showing the Musk–Altman rift widening. In one February 2016 exchange, Musk warned other OpenAI founders that competitors were “playing the Super Bowl and we are playing the Puppy Bowl.”
By late 2017, Musk had threatened to cut funding entirely. “Guys, I’ve had enough,” he wrote. “Either go do something on your own or continue with OpenAI as a nonprofit.”
Altman replied, saying, “I remain enthusiastic about the non-profit structure!”
The new texts echo that same dynamic—Musk fuming, Altman appeasing.
An OpenAI spokesperson wasn’t as conciliatory when reached for comment on the story by the Daily Beast. “That Mr. Musk is even continuing with this baseless and time-wasting lawsuit only goes to show it was always just part of his ongoing pattern of harassment,” they said. “We’re instead focused on achieving our mission and benefiting people through what is already one of the best resourced nonprofits ever, the OpenAI Foundation.”
A representative for Musk did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
The case remains pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
