One of the spiciest courtroom dramas involving two tech titans is underway. Elon Musk and Sam Altman have begun their trial, facing off this week with opening statements and one testimony as part of a landmark lawsuit. Musk and Altman, who have gone to war of words on social platforms earlier, are now involving the law to decide the fate of OpenAI, a firm in which Musk has serious interests.
‘It is not okay to steal a charity’: Elon Musk
Musk’s attorney, Steven Molo, opened his testimony by framing the dispute around OpenAI’s core founding mission, which is to create a nonprofit, open-source counterweight to Google’s for-profit, closed-source AI efforts, keeping a strong emphasis on safety.
“No one should be allowed to steal a charity,” Molo told the jury, referring to Altman’s decision to make OpenAI a profit-chasing firm. Musk repeated the same in his testimony: “It’s not okay to steal a charity. If OpenAI is not found guilty, if this case becomes precedent, the entire foundation of charitable giving in America will be destroyed,” he says.
Musk also stated that OpenAI committed a breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment, deviating highly from the original mission of the company.
A dig at Microsoft
Musk’s lawyer also stated that Microsoft was aiding and abetting a breach of fiduciary duty by supporting OpenAI.
“OpenAI exists because of Google’s co-founder”
Musk recounted conversations with Google co-founder Larry Page, in which the latter reportedly downplayed AI risks, saying it would be “fine as long as artificial intelligence survives” and labelling Musk a “speciesist” for prioritising humanity. “The reason OpenAI exists is because Larry Page called me a speciesist,” he added.
Post the conversation with Larry, Musk said there was a need for an “open-source nonprofit” entity as the “opposite of Google.” He claimed he came up with the OpenAI name, recruited key talent (including Ilya Sutskever, described as potentially Google’s “number one” most valuable researcher), and provided initial funding. Musk’s recruitment of Sutskever reportedly ended his friendly communications with Page.
“AI dangerous if put in charge of someone untrustworthy”
Musk said he would have created OpenAI with or without Sam Altman or Greg Brockman. However, he was glad they wanted to do it with him.
Musk then spoke about the relevance of AI, stating that the technology will be “probably smarter than any human as soon as next year.” As a result, Musk believes that “if you have someone who’s not very trustworthy in charge of AI, that’s very dangerous for the whole world.” A subtle dig at Altman?
“As long as the tail didn’t wag the dog”
Musk says he envisioned OpenAI’s corporate structure in the company’s early days as a nonprofit that would be funded initially with donations. However, there could potentially be a parallel for-profit entity, which could be owned by the nonprofit wing but fund the nonprofit entity.
“We were in agreement that OpenAI would be a 501c3 charity,” Musk describes what he assumed when chatting with Altman over emails in the company’s early days. He described how Altman, Brockman and Ilya Sutskever spend hours brainstorming on how to fund OpenAI as a non-profit. Musk admitted he pitched ideas for attaching the non-profit OpenAI to Tesla or any of the other companies to provide funding. His idea was open as long as the ‘for-profit’ entity did not take control over the entire company’s ‘non-profit’ direction.
“I wanted to have some impact on the world with technology”
Musk also shed light on what all his companies aim to do. “The goal of SpaceX is to make life multiplanetary, so to extend life beyond Earth,” he says. “It’s life insurance for life as we know it.” Similarly, Musk also spoke about Neuralink, stating that the firm wants to “closely tie the human world to AI.” He added that AI will be better for humanity If we achieve better human-AI symbiosis.
OpenAI’s counter to Musk’s claims
“Tale of two Elons”, says OpenAI
OpenAI’s counsel pushed back hard against Musk’s statements, presenting what they called “a tale of two Elons.” They claimed that Elon was in support of a for-profit arm as long as he remained in control, while understanding that AI can’t be kept open-source. But now, Elon claims that OpenAI needed exist as a nonprofit entity and “the technology should’ve remained open-source.”
They argued Musk long recognised the need for for-profit elements to attract capital and talent for compute-intensive AI development, and even suggested structures like a standard C corp with a parallel nonprofit.
One message shown in court from Musk read: “Probably better to have a standard C corp with a parallel nonprofit.”
“Musk came occasionally to yell at people”
The OpenAI lawyer presented a photo of the founding members from the company’s early days, showing them wearing T-shirts and jeans in a scrappy office. The lawyer claims that Musk was at Y Combinator and only used to occasionally drop by for yelling at people of not moving fast enough. “He used his funding commitment to bully the other members of the OpenAI founding team,” he says.
“Nobody told Microsoft about violating special donation conditions”
Another major attack from OpenAI includes Musk knowing about restructuring plans and Microsoft investments in real time, and yet waiting years to sue OpenAI. “Nobody ever told Microsoft that it helped violate any special donation condition,” says the lawyer, following Musk’s claim that Microsoft knew about it.
OpenAI maintains that the nonprofit remains in control of the for-profit subsidiary, a structure necessary to compete and hire top researchers.
Musk vs Altman trial: Where’s this heading
The first chapter of the trial began with the jury selection process in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, with Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers presiding. The prospective jurors were questioned about their views on Musk, Altman, and AI itself.
Both Musk and Altman were present for the opening statements and the start of the testimony. OpenAI President Greg Brockman was also in attendance.
Judge Gonzalez Rogers will make the final decisions on remedies. The case is expected to run for several weeks, and Musk is seeking damages in the range of over $134 billion to $150 billion in various accounts. Musk has also advocated for structural changes to OpenAI, including the potential removal of Altman and Brockman from their posts.