How an Argument with Larry Page on Elon Musk’s Birthday Shaped the Trajectory of A.I.

Today (June 28) marks the 53rd birthday of Elon Musk, the billionaire known for his technology-focused ambitions across the worlds of electric vehicles, space exploration, social media and now A.I. One this day nine years ago, at Musk’s 44th birthday party, the Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX CEO got into an unexpected argument with his longtime friend, Google (GOOGL) co-founder Larry Page, that would shape the landscape of generative A.I. as we know it today.

In 2015, the duo had already been friends for over a decade. Musk first met Page before the Google co-founder had even received venture funding for his company, said Musk on Lex Fridman’s podcast in November. The entrepreneur would often stay at Page’s house in Palo Alto, Calif. debating into the late hours of the night on A.I. safety—a topic Musk was fascinated with at the time.

Their conversations on the emerging technology reached a head, however, when Musk was celebrating his 44th birthday at a Napa Valley affair attended by Page. The two entered into a lengthy discussion on the merits and dangers of A.I. development that eventually became heated. While Musk argued that safeguards were needed to prevent A.I. from potentially eliminating the human race, Page retorted that machines surpassing humans in intelligence was the next stage of evolution, according to the 2023 Elon Musk biography by Walter Isaacson. Page eventually went on to accuse Musk of being a “specist,” someone who favors the human race over other life forms. “Well, yes, I am pro-human,” responded Musk. The comment from Page was “the last straw,” he told Tucker Carlson in April 2023.

The start of different A.I. paths and OpenAI

The argument sent the two tech leaders on different paths in A.I. development. Google in 2014 acquired DeepMind, an A.I. startup that Musk previously invested $5 million into. In response to his conversation with Page and concerns that DeepMind had a monopoly on A.I. talent, Musk set about pursuing his own rival venture. After meeting with Sam Altman, who was then the president of startup accelerator Y Combinator, the duo decided to launch OpenAI at the end of 2015. “I’m like, okay, this guy is calling me a specist. He doesn’t care about A.I. safety,” recalled Musk at the 2023 Dealbook Summit. “We’ve got to have some counterpoint here because this is no good.”

In addition to co-founding OpenAI, Musk poured millions into the startup and helped poach Ilya Sutskever, a computer scientist who made key contributions to the field of deep learning, from Google. This marked the nail in the coffin for his relationship with Page.

“Larry felt betrayed and was really mad at me for personally recruiting Ilya, and he refused to hang out with me anymore,” Musk told his biographer Isaacson. “And I was like, ‘Larry, if you just hadn’t been so cavalier about A.I. safety then it wouldn’t really be necessary to have some countervailing force.'”

Musk and Altman’s relationship, too, would go on to break down, with Musk stepping away from OpenAI in 2018 after he failed to incorporate it into his electric vehicle company Tesla. The billionaire earlier this year sued both OpenAI and Altman and claimed it was prioritizing profit over the wellbeing of humanity in a lawsuit that has since been withdrawn.

In November of 2022, A.I. officially entered the mainstream when OpenAI released ChatGPT. The launch kicked off an A.I. race among Big Tech companies and startups alike. Musk, meanwhile, launched the chatbot Grok through his new A.I. startup xAI in November.

At the heart of the current A.I. revolution are the same debates Musk and Page had back in 2015. Clashes over A.I. safeguards have become especially visible at OpenAI, where Altman was briefly ousted last year by Sutskever and other OpenAI board members concerned about his approach towards A.I. safety.

Musk continues to reiterate his concerns that A.I. poses an existential threat to humanity, while Page has not publicly commented on A.I. safety in recent years. Even though the two haven’t appeared to find common ground over their differences regarding the technology, Musk last year told Fridman he wasn’t opposed to reconciling their relationship. “I’d like to be friends with Larry again. I haven’t seen him in ages,” he said.