OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — In a try Neither tech giant emerged as an overly sympathetic character following the conflict between Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. But no one has more to lose than Altman, who is expected to take the stand this week to defend himself.
Statements about Altman’s tumultuous tenure at the ChatGPT maker have already become a major source of jokes on the internet. One piece of evidence that inspired countless memes was a short-lived text exchange between Altman and company official Mira Murati in 2023. Dismissal as CEOWhen Altman asked if things were going “for better or worse directionally,” he replied: “Sam, that’s too bad.”
Musk, the world’s richest man, is seeking Altman’s removal as company leader for a second time, in a civil lawsuit accusing Altman of betraying their shared vision. OpenAI. Since its inception as a non-profit organization primarily funded by Musk, Open AI has turned into a capitalist enterprise It is currently worth $852 billion.
Even if Musk loses hearing It invited greater scrutiny of Altman’s leadership at a pivotal time for the company and his rivalry with Musk’s own artificial intelligence firm and Anthropic, another rival formed by a group of seven former OpenAI leaders. All three firms are moving toward planned initial public offerings that are expected to be among the largest ever.
A jury that has already heard about Altman’s character from a parade of former allies and rivals will ultimately decide. But its repercussions may reverberate widely.
“This doesn’t look good for any of them, and I think it’s kind of unfortunate for the AI industry at a time when the public perception of AI is pretty negative and getting worse,” said Sarah Kreps, director of the Technology Policy Institute at Cornell University.
Musk warns Altman will be one of America’s ‘most hated’ men
The lawsuit accuses Altman and his top lieutenant, Greg Brockman, of betraying Musk by straying from the San Francisco company’s founding mission to be a devoted steward of a revolutionary technology. They went into money-making mode behind his back, the lawsuit alleges.
Shortly before the hearing began, Musk abandoned his offer of compensation for himself and is instead asking for an unspecified amount of money to be paid to fund the altruistic efforts of OpenAI’s philanthropic arm. In a text exchange with Brockman that suggested a possible settlement, Musk warned that Brockman and Altman “will be the most hated men in America” as a result of the lawsuit.
While Musk, the chairman of SpaceX, Tesla and many other companies, was well known to the San Francisco Bay Area jury pool, few knew who Altman was before the trial began, even if they were familiar with ChatGPT.
As the trial continued in a federal courtroom in Oakland, California, for the past two weeks, jurors heard witnesses, including OpenAI’s former board members Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley, who talked about the decision to fire Altman in 2023 before they themselves were ousted from the board when Altman returned to his position.
In his video testimony last week, Toner said the starting point for the decision to oust Altman was OpenAI. co-founder Ilya SutskeverA respected AI scientist reached out to express some concerns.
“The phrase we used was ‘pattern of behavior,’ so there is no single cause,” Toner said. “His pattern of behavior related to his honesty and candor and his resistance to oversight by the board.”
Sutskever was instrumental in this. failed attempt He wanted to oust Altman but later said he regretted his role in the change. In his own testimony Monday, Sutskever confirmed that he wrote a memo to OpenAI’s board in 2023 that characterized Altman as someone who exhibited a “consistent pattern of lying” that pitted his executives against each other and resulted in a loss of trust and productivity.
Sutskever said Altman’s behavior contributed to an environment “not conducive” to the company’s goals, including its mission to safely create artificial general intelligence. He later said he backtracked and supported Altman’s reinstatement because he was concerned about what would happen to a company he worked hard to build and “cared very much about.”
“I felt like if I didn’t do this, the company would be destroyed, and I felt like it was a Hail Mary,” he testified.
OpenAI is starting to show its side
The trial also posed risks for Musk, who is pursuing an initial public offering for the rocket ship maker this summer. SpaceXThis could make him the world’s first trillionaire. Among the witnesses was Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member who served as a conduit between Musk and OpenAI leaders and who also did not disclose that he was the father of Musk’s two younger twins, according to trial testimony.
By noon on Monday, in the third week of the trial, OpenAI had begun calling its own witnesses, starting with OpenAI’s current chairman of the board, Bret Taylor, who painted a more positive portrait of Altman’s leadership.
“I think Sam has done a great job as CEO,” Taylor said. “He was forthright with me and other board members.”
Syracuse University professor Shubha Ghosh, an expert on business and technology law, said she has doubts about Altman remaining CEO of OpenAI in the long term, regardless of the outcome of the case.
“A lot of this may depend on testimony,” he said. “And I don’t know what he’s going to say or how he’s going to say it. But even at the best of times, in a movie theater-type performance, where all the music is playing and the angels are coming down and stuff, I don’t think he emerges as a pretty strong leader, especially since this case has gone this far.”
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O’Brien contributed from Providence, RI
