Sam Altman says Elon Musk’s mind games were damaging OpenAI

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman testified that Elon Musk's management style harmed OpenAI's culture. Musk's demand to rank and cut researchers caused internal damage. Altman believes Musk did not understand how to run a research lab effectively.

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PublishedTuesday, May 12, 2026 at 7:34 PMMay 12, 07:34 PM

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said during testimony that Elon Musk’s departure from the AI startup was a “morale boost,” as Musk required leaders to rank and fire researchers.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says Elon Musk did “huge damage” to the culture of the AI startup. During testimony as part of Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, Altman said Musk required OpenAI president Greg Brockman and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever to rank researchers by their accomplishments and “take a chainsaw through a bunch.”

Opening the briefing

Sam Altman says Elon Musk’s mind games were damaging OpenAI

Original article excerpt