Shortly after Sam Altman briefly stepped down as CEO of OpenAI two years ago, the company discussed a possible merger with artificial intelligence rival Anthropic, according to newly released court documents. OpenAI co-founder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskvo detailed the merger talks in a recent deposition as part of Elon Musk's ongoing legal battle with Altman and OpenAI related to the company's restructuring.
Sutskwo testified for 10 hours in San Francisco last month, telling attorneys that the ChatGPT maker discussed a merger proposal from Anthropic in November 2023. The proposal would see Anthropic take over leadership of OpenAI, Sutskwo said, adding that he was not satisfied with the move.
In his testimony, Suczkovo said that after OpenAI's board fired Altman, the company's board members had calls with Anthropic executives about a possible merger, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and his sister, company president Dario Amodei.
"I remember Anthropic expressing their excitement about it and expressing the problem - the practical challenges they were going to face," Sutskwo said in his testimony.
Sutskwo, who was an OpenAI board member at the time, said in his testimony that he was "very unhappy" with the idea of merging his business with Anthropic and "really didn't want" to see it happen.
He said in an interview that he was essentially the only dissenter among OpenAI board members.
“Yes, they were very supportive,” Sutskwo said, adding that OpenAI board member Helen Toner was the “most supportive” of the merger proposal at the time. "I think at least there's no one who doesn't support it."
Discussions of a merger were "very brief" and eventually petered out, Sutskwo said.
"My recollection is that Anthropic raised some practical hurdles, so the proposal didn't go forward," he said.
Asked by OpenAI lawyers, Sutskwo said he didn't know what those obstacles were.
Altman, who co-founded OpenAI with Sutskwo and Musk in 2015, returned as CEO just days after being ousted.