Tesla CEO, world’s richest man, and OpenAI cofounder Elon Musk testified on Tuesday in a high-stakes trial in Oakland, California. The case, a bitter feud with former friend Sam Altman, could reshape the future development of artificial intelligence.
His testimony at the federal courthouse launched a legal drama expected to brim with intrigue and potentially embarrassing details about the two tech moguls. Musk filed the 2024 lawsuit against Altman, his top lieutenant Greg Brockman, and Microsoft over its OpenAI investments.
“Fundamentally, I think they’re going to try to make this lawsuit … very complicated, but it’s actually very simple,” Mr. Musk stated. “Which is that it’s not OK to steal a charity.”
A nine-person jury was selected Monday, with the trial scheduled to last three weeks.
In the civil lawsuit, Musk accuses Altman and Brockman of double-crossing him by straying from the San Francisco company’s founding mission to be a steward of a revolutionary technology. In his opening statement, Musk’s attorney, Steven Molo, quoted OpenAI’s mission statement when it was created as a nonprofit for the benefit of humanity, not constrained by the need to generate financial enrichment for anyone.
Altman and Brockman, aided by Microsoft, stole a charity “whose mission was the safe, open development of artificial intelligence,” Molo said. Musk is seeking damages and Altman’s ouster from OpenAI’s board.
OpenAI has brushed off Musk’s allegations as a case of sour grapes aimed at undercutting its rapid growth and bolstering Musk’s own xAI, which he launched in 2023 as a competitor.
Both sides recount the start of a bitter divide
In his opening statement, OpenAI lawyer William Savitt told jurors “we are here because Mr. Musk didn’t get his way with OpenAI.”
Savitt said Musk used his promises of funding to bully OpenAI founding members and tried to take control of OpenAI and merge it with Tesla. In fact, he said Musk wanted to form a for-profit company and own more than 50% of it.
There is no record, Savitt said, of promises made to Musk that OpenAI was going to remain a nonprofit forever. What Musk ultimately cared about, he said, was not OpenAI’s nonprofit status but winning the AI race with Google.
Musk’s attorney said the case is not about Musk, but rather Altman, Brockman and Microsoft.
By 2017, about two years after OpenAI’s founding, it became clear that OpenAI would need more money, and Molo said the founders eventually settled on the idea of creating a for-profit arm of OpenAI that would support the nonprofit. Terms were capped for investors so they “couldn’t make infinite profit.”
“There is nothing wrong with a nonprofit having a for-profit subsidiary, but (it) has to advance the mission,” Molo said.
Microsoft initially invested $2 billion in OpenAI. Then, in 2022, news spread that OpenAI had done a deal with Microsoft and it was a “game-changer,” Molo said, which violated “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 was going to have control, through licensing, of much of its intellectual property, Molo said.
After opening statements, Musk’s side began presenting a tale of alleged betrayal, deceit and ambition that caused OpenAI to pivot from its founding mission as an altruistic startup to a capitalistic venture now valued at $852 billion.
Musk testifies on how he sees AI evolving
Musk was the first to testify, with his lawyer starting off asking about his life story. This included details about his move, at 17, from South Africa to Canada where for a time Musk said he worked as a lumberjack among other odd jobs, then to the U.S. He recounted the slew of companies he founded and runs, including SpaceX, Tesla, The Boring Company, Neuralink and others.
Asked how he has time for everything, Musk said he works 80 to 100 hours a week, doesn’t take vacations and owns no vacation homes or yachts.
Molo also asked Musk about his views on AI. Musk said he expects AI to be “smarter than any human” as soon as next year. Musk said a longstanding concern about AI is the question of what happens when computers become much smarter than humans. Comparing it to having a “very smart child,” Musk said when the child grows up “you can’t control that child,” but you can instill values such as honesty, integrity and being good.
Musk recounted his version of OpenAI’s founding, which he said essentially happened because of a discussion he had with Google co-founder Larry Page, who called him a “specieist” for elevating the survival of humanity over that of AI.
The kinship between Musk and Altman was forged in 2015 when they agreed to build AI in a more responsible and safer way than the profit-driven companies controlled by Google’s Page and Sergey Brin and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, according to evidence submitted ahead of the trial.
At that time, Musk said, Google had all the money, all the computers and all the talent for AI. “There was no counterbalance.”
Musk recalled there was discussion early on about alternative sources for funding OpenAI beyond donations, and he wasn’t opposed to it having a for-profit arm, but “the tail shouldn’t wag the dog.” There would be a profit limit, and once artificial general intelligence, or AGI, was “figured out,” the for-profit would cease to exist.
Musk is expected to continue testifying Wednesday.
Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, is also expected to testify, along with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, one of the technology leaders who helped fund the late 2022 release of ChatGPT, the chatbot that unleashed the current AI boom that has propelled the stock market to record heights.
Altman’s court appearance likely made him unavailable to attend an Amazon event across San Francisco Bay on Tuesday at which both companies announced an expanded partnership.
“I wish I could be there with you in person today,” Altman told attendees of Amazon’s event in San Francisco via a prerecorded video message. “My schedule got taken away from me today.”
