Quoting Sam Altman
A 2022 email from Sam Altman to OpenAI's board reveals plans to release a GPT-3-level open source model that can run on consumer hardware, aiming to discourage competitors and reduce funding for rival efforts. The email was exposed in the Musk v. Altman lawsuit in 2026.
A quote from Sam Altman
Simon Willison’s Weblog
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20th July 2026
We have been having extensive discussions around open source strategy. We will discuss it more at our next board meeting, but one thing we’d like to do soon is to create a language model with the approximate capability of GPT-3 that can run locally on consumer hardware and release that. We’d like to do it soon, before Stability or someone else does. In general, we think this helps discourage others from releasing similarly-powerful models, and makes it harder for new efforts to get funded.
— Sam Altman, Email to OpenAI's board, October 1, 2022 - exposed in Musk v. Altman (2026)
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This is a quotation collected by Simon Willison, posted on 20th July 2026.
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