I wanted to start with Ilya's emails, and well, the first one is from our friend Greg, who used to be president (   I'm putting it in lowercase because I don't even know how someone so clueless could become president of anything) of OpenAI. I'm sure he'll surprise us.

The emails from Durk Kingma (November-December 2015) demonstrate how the strategy of Ilya Sutskever, Greg Brockman, and Sam Altman to attract talent and consolidate control often used the figure of Elon Musk as the primary "lure."

**1. The use of Elon Musk as a "Lure" and Moral Authority** In the 2015 emails, Greg Brockman actively uses Musk's figure to convince Kingma not to go to a startup, but to come to OpenAI to work. Brockman tells Kingma not to make a final decision without talking to Elon, suggesting that Musk has "the best perspective in the world" on how to solve humanity's hardest problems. To close the deal, Brockman quotes a private email from Musk where he states that AI is the "biggest near-term existential threat" and that he will dedicate whatever amount of his time is materially useful to OpenAI, even at some cost to SpaceX and Tesla.

*The contrast with the future is staggering:* while in 2015 they use Musk’s personal commitment to recruit top scientists (like Kingma and Schulman), by 2017 and early 2018, that same commitment is seen as a "nuisance" or a risk of "dictatorship".

**2. The Seed of the "AGI Dictatorship" (Ethics vs. Structure)** The exchange regarding points (A) and (B) between Kingma, Schulman, and Brockman is very revealing: Kingma argues that what matters is not when AI arrives (A), but where it is developed (B), preferring a "civilized western institution with oversight." Greg Brockman claims that point (B) is the "core" reason they are starting the lab, to prevent AGI from ending up in a "for-profit company" or an "omnipotent surveillance state."

This 2015 promise that benefits would be distributed widely and not turn anyone into a "quadrillion-dollar company" clashes head-on with the transition to a for-profit structure that Ilya and Greg with Zilis and Altman, were already secretly discussing in July 2017.

**3. The Role of Ilya Sutskever: From "Truth" to Control** In Kingma’s emails, Ilya appears briefly at the end, validating Durk's acceptance with the phrase: "strong, true words."

This validation of Kingma’s "truth" (who joins for the ethical and non-profit mission) contrasts with the "Honest Thoughts" email from September 2017, where Ilya himself admits that they "did not tell their whole truth during the negotiation" with Musk. The emails show that Ilya and Greg operate as a solid block. In 2015, apparently, that block aligns with Musk to build the team; in 2017, that same block aligns against Musk to secure board control and the future transition toward profits.

**4. The Manipulation of Financial Perception** In 2015, Brockman assures Kingma that he doesn't care if OpenAI is the one that ultimately "makes" AGI, as long as they "shape the direction of progress." However, by July 2017, Ilya is already sending emails about "The business of building AGI" and seeking "relevant funding" (billions) that Musk was not aware of.

They use Kingma's concern for "ethics" to justify the creation of the lab, but then use that same "ethics" (the fear of an AGI dictatorship by Musk) as a weapon to displace him from decision-making, even though we have seen in the emails with Sam Altman how Musk agreed to take a back seat and specifically wanted to ensure everything was correct so they would not become a profit organization.

Kingma’s emails prove that OpenAI’s original "value proposition", being an ethical, non-profit counterweight to Google, was the fundamental instrument used to steal talent from Big Tech and Silicon Valley startups. Once that talent was secured under OpenAI’s wing, the leadership (Ilya, Greg, and Sam) proceeded to dismantle the very structure they promised to protect, with the invaluable help of their great collaborator Shivon Zilis to manage Musk's exit, in other words, stealing it all from him.