Larry Page once wanted Elon Musk to inherit his billions: AI changed everything

Google co-founder Larry Page and Elon Musk were once good friends who shared an interest in technology and how it could shape humanity's future. Page admired Musk's plans to take humans to Mars and believed his ambitions went beyond building successful businesses. He was so impressed by Musk's vision that he once suggested leaving his wealth to the Tesla and SpaceX CEO rather than donating it to a charity.

During a 2014 conversation with journalist Charlie Rose at the TED conference, Page was asked about the remark and explained why he considered Musk's Mars mission important. However, their friendship did not last. The two reportedly grew apart over their different views on artificial intelligence (AI), with Musk later saying that their disagreement over the technology was one of the reasons he decided to start OpenAI.

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Why Larry Page admired Elon Musk's ambitions

Page's comments about Musk's plans for Mars came during his 2014 TED conversation with Charlie Rose. When Rose brought up the idea of Page leaving his money to Musk, the Google co-founder stood by his earlier remark.

He believed Musk's plan to establish a human presence on Mars was about more than space exploration. The idea was to create another home for humanity in case life on Earth faced a major threat. Page considered this a meaningful contribution to humanity's future and a form of philanthropy.

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How their disagreement over AI affected their friendship

Their relationship reportedly began to change as they developed different views on artificial intelligence. In Walter Isaacson's biography of Musk, the Tesla CEO recalled several arguments with Page over the possible risks of AI.

Musk said he was concerned that advanced AI could eventually threaten human existence. According to his account, Page did not share the same concerns and was more focused on the survival of digital intelligence. Musk also recalled Page calling him a 'speciesist' for putting human survival first.

The disagreement became more serious when Musk recruited Google's AI researcher Ilya Sutskever in 2015 to help establish OpenAI. According to Musk, Page felt betrayed by the move and stopped speaking to him.

Musk later said that his differences with Page over AI safety were among the reasons he wanted to establish OpenAI. He wanted another organisation to challenge Google's growing influence in the field and take a different approach to developing artificial intelligence.