Elon Musk took the stand on Tuesday at a high-stakes trial over the future of OpenAI, saying its co-founder and chief executive, Sam Altman, and its president, Greg Brockman, betrayed him and the public.
According to Musk, the duo abandoned OpenAI’s mission to be a benevolent steward of AI for humanity and transformed the nonprofit into a profit-seeking juggernaut, Reuters reports.
The world’s richest person, who founded automaker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, characterised OpenAI as his brainchild and is suing OpenAI, Altman, and Brockman.
“If we make it OK to loot a charity, the entire foundation of charitable giving in America will be destroyed,” Musk testified on the first day of the trial. “That’s my concern.”
“I came up with the idea, the name, recruited the key people, taught them everything I know, provided all of the initial funding,” Musk said. “It was specifically meant to be for a charity that does not benefit any individual person. I could’ve started it as a for profit and I specifically chose not to.”
Before Musk began testifying, William Savitt, a lawyer for OpenAI and Altman, told jurors during his opening statement that it was Musk who saw dollar signs as he helped finance OpenAI’s early growth and pushed it to become a for-profit business, one he might eventually lead as CEO.
Savitt said Musk wanted “the keys to the kingdom,” and sued only after he failed. In 2023, he started his own AI business, xAI, now part of SpaceX.
“What he cares about is Elon Musk being on top,” Savitt said in his opening statement. “We are here because Mr. Musk didn’t get his way.”
OpenAI’s lawyer also framed OpenAI’s March 2019 creation of a for-profit entity as critical to letting it buy computing power and pay top scientists to stay competitive with Google’s DeepMind AI lab.
Musk’s lawyer, Steven Molo, told jurors in his opening statement that it was the OpenAI defendants who were greedy for money, as OpenAI began drawing investors, including Microsoft, which invested $10 billion in January 2023.
“It wasn’t a vehicle for people to get rich,” Molo said.
Musk is expected to resume his testimony on Wednesday.
Judge Admonishes Musk Over Social Media Use
Musk is seeking $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, one of its largest investors, with proceeds going to OpenAI’s charitable arm.
He also wants OpenAI to revert to a nonprofit, with Altman and Brockman removed as officers and Altman removed from its board. Musk’s claims include breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment.
While Musk described OpenAI as a charity, the organization called itself a nonprofit artificial intelligence research company in a 2015 post, “Introducing OpenAI.”
Before jurors were seated, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers admonished Musk after OpenAI lawyers complained about his posts on X on Monday, in which he assailed Altman as “Scam Altman” and accused him of stealing a charity.
Rogers said she was loath to issue a gag order, but urged Musk to “try to control your propensity to use social media to make things work outside the courtroom … Perhaps you’ve never done that before.”
Musk agreed to minimise his social media activity, and Altman similarly agreed. Altman and Microsoft chief Satya Nadella are also expected to testify.
The trial offers a window into some of the egos and personalities that shaped OpenAI as it evolved from a nonprofit research lab in Brockman’s apartment to a company worth more than $850 billion.
It also risks complicating OpenAI’s plans for a potential initial public offering by casting doubt on its leadership, and could intensify Americans’ fears about AI technology more broadly.
Lawyers Dispute Importance Of AI Safety To Musk
Musk and Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015 with a goal of developing AI to benefit humanity and fend off rivals such as Google.
Musk testified that “I’ve had extreme concerns about AI for a very long time,” and focused more intently on it after meetings with former U.S. President Barack Obama and Google didn’t address AI’s risks.
“I was very close friends with Larry Page at Google,” Musk testified, referring to Google’s co-founder. “We would talk for many hours about AI safety. At a certain point, it was clear to me Larry Page was not sufficiently caring about AI … We had to have a counterpoint against Google.”
Savitt, in his opening statement, said AI safety wasn’t a priority for Musk and that Musk denigrated OpenAI employees who focused on it. “Jackasses IS what he called them,” Savitt said.
Musk has said he provided about $38 million to OpenAI for its original mission, and testified he flexed his connections to provide computing capacity, personally approaching Nadella as well as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
OpenAI created its for-profit entity 13 months after Musk left its board.
Russell Cohen, a lawyer for Microsoft, said in his opening statement that the company didn’t do anything wrong and has been “a responsible partner every step of the way.”
OpenAI also faces growing competition from rivals, including Anthropic, and is spending billions on computational resources. A potential IPO could value the company at $1 trillion, Reuters has reported.
Musk’s xAI trails far behind OpenAI in usage. He has folded that business into SpaceX, whose own potential IPO this year could be the largest ever.
Late last year, OpenAI overhauled its structure again to become a public benefit corporation, in which the nonprofit and other investors, including Microsoft, hold stakes. The nonprofit holds a 26% stake, plus warrants if OpenAI hits certain valuation targets.
