Elon Muskco-founder of OpenAI and the richest person in the world, took the stand Tuesday to testify in a trial revolving around a bitter dispute with his former friend Sam Altmanwhich could reconfigure the future development of the artificial intelligence.
His testimony in federal court in Oakland, Californiakicked off a courtroom drama that is set to be full of intrigue and details about the two technology moguls. Musk filed the lawsuit against Altman and his right-hand man, Greg Brockmanas well as Microsoftfor its investments in OpenAI, in 2024.
“Fundamentally, I think they’re going to try to make this lawsuit…very complicated, but it’s actually very simple.”Musk said. “And it is not right to steal from a charity”.
The nine jurors were selected Monday and the trial is scheduled to last three weeks.
In the civil lawsuit, Musk accuses Altman and Brockman of betraying him by deviating from the company’s founding mission of being custodian of revolutionary technology.. In his opening arguments, Musk’s lawyer, Steven Molo, cited verbatim the mission under which OpenAI was created as a nonprofit organization for the benefit of humanity, not limited by the need to generate financial enrichment for anyone.
With the help of Microsoft, Altman and Brockman stole a charity “whose mission was the secure and open development of artificial intelligence,” Molo noted. Musk is seeking damages and Altman’s removal from the OpenAI board.
OpenAI has said Musk’s accusations are a case of bad blood aimed at undermining its rapid growth and boosting artificial intelligence company xAI, which Musk launched as a competitor in 2023.
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Both parties recount the beginning of the disagreement
In his opening statement, OpenAI lawyer William Savitt told the jury: “We are here because Mr. Musk did not get his way with OpenAI.”
Savitt noted that Musk used his funding promises to intimidate OpenAI’s founding members and tried to take control of the company and merge it with Tesla. In fact, he stated that Musk wanted to form a for-profit company and own more than 50% of it.
There is no record, Savitt stressed, of Musk promising that OpenAI would remain a nonprofit forever. What Musk ultimately cared about, he stressed, was not OpenAI’s nonprofit status but beating Google in the AI race.
Musk’s lawyer said this case is not about Musk, but about Altman, Brockman and Microsoft.
By 2017, about two years after OpenAI was founded, it became clear that the company was going to need more money, and Molo said the founders finally settled on the idea of creating a for-profit arm of OpenAI that would support the nonprofit. Term limits were set for investors so that they “could not make infinite profits.”
“There’s nothing wrong with a nonprofit having a for-profit subsidiary, but (it) has to drive the mission,” Molo said.
Microsoft made an initial investment of $2 billion in OpenAI. Then, in 2022, news spread that OpenAI had reached a deal with Microsoft that “was a huge turnaround,” Molo said, violating “every commitment” OpenAI made, not just to Musk but to the world. It was no longer open source, it became a for-profit company for the benefit of the defendants and Microsoft would have control, through licenses, of much of its intellectual property, Molo stressed.
After opening arguments, the plaintiff laid out a story of alleged betrayal, deceit, and ambition that led OpenAI to deviate from its founding mission as an altruistic startup to become a capitalist company now valued at $852 billion.
Musk testifies about how he sees the evolution of AI
Musk was the first to testify, and to start his lawyer asked him about his life story. This included details about his move from South Africa to Canada when he was 17 and where he worked for a time as a lumberjack, before moving back to the United States. He recounted the series of companies he founded and runs, including SpaceX, Tesla, The Boring Company and Neuralink, among others.
When asked how he has time for everything, Musk said he works 80 to 100 hours a week, doesn’t take vacations, and doesn’t own vacation homes or yachts.
Molo also asked Musk about his opinion on AI, to which he responded that he expects this type of technology to be “smarter than any human being” even as early as next year. Musk said one of the long-standing concerns about AI is what happens when computers become much smarter than humans. Comparing the situation to having a “very intelligent child,” Musk said that when the child grows up “you can’t control him,” but you can instill in him values such as honesty, integrity and being good.
Musk recounted his account of the founding of OpenAI, which he said occurred broadly during a discussion he had with Google co-founder Larry Page, who called him a “speciesist” for putting the survival of humanity above that of AI.
Musk and Altman became close in 2015 when they agreed to develop AI in a more responsible and safer way than money-driven companies like Google, controlled by Page and Sergey Brin, and Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, according to evidence presented before the trial.
At that time, Musk said, Google had all the money, all the computers and all the talent for AI development. “There was no counterbalance.”
Musk recalled that at first there were discussions about alternative sources of funding for OpenAI beyond donations, and that he was not opposed to it having a for-profit arm, but “the tail should not wag the dog.” There would be a profit cap, and once artificial general intelligence, or AGI, was “solved,” the for-profit part would cease to exist.
Musk is scheduled to continue his testimony on Wednesday.
Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is also scheduled to testify at the trial, along with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, one of the technology leaders who helped finance the launch of ChatGPT, the chatbot that sparked the current AI boom and has driven the stock market to all-time highs.
Altman’s court appearance will likely leave him unavailable to attend an Amazon event across the San Francisco Bay on Tuesday, where the two companies announced an expanded partnership.
“I wish I could be there with you,” Altman told attendees at the Amazon event in San Francisco via a prerecorded video message. “I had no control over my schedule this day.”