Not OK to ‘loot a charity,’ Musk says at OpenAI trial
Elon Musk took the stand at a hearing on the future of OpenAI and made his case in defense of the charitable giving institution.
Musk, the world’s richest person, is suing OpenAI, its co-founder and CEO Sam Altman, and chairman Greg Brockman, saying they betrayed him and the public by abandoning the ChatGPT maker’s mission to be a benevolent guardian of artificial intelligence for humanity and turning the nonprofit into a profit-seeking juggernaut.
In his first speech, Musk told his own life story and said, “If we agree to loot a charity, the entire basis of charitable giving in America will be destroyed. That’s my concern.”
Musk appeared calm, sometimes glaring and addressing the jury.
Bill Savitt, an attorney for OpenAI and Altman, said it was Musk who saw dollar signs in financing OpenAI’s early growth and pushed it to become a for-profit business that he could eventually run as CEO.
Savitt said Musk wanted the “keys to the kingdom” and filed a lawsuit only after he failed and then launched his own artificial intelligence business, xAI, in 2023.
“What he cares about is Elon Musk being at the top,” Savitt said in his opening statement.
“We’re here because Mr. Musk didn’t get what he wanted at OpenAI.”
OpenAI’s lawyer also noted that OpenAI’s creation of a nonprofit in March 2019 was critical to allowing it to buy computing power and pay top scientists to compete with Google’s DeepMind AI lab.
Musk’s attorney, Steven Molo, told jurors in his opening statement that there were OpenAI defendants seeking riches for themselves as OpenAI began attracting investors, including Microsoft.
In his opening statement, Molo said, “The defendants in the case stole a charity and we ask you to hold them accountable.” he said.
“It wasn’t a tool for people to get rich.”
Tesla and SpaceX founder Musk is seeking US$150bn ($A209bn) in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, one of its biggest investors, with the proceeds going to OpenAI’s charitable arm.
He also wants OpenAI to revert to a nonprofit, have Altman and Brockman removed as officers, and have Altman removed from the board.
Musk’s claims include breach of trust of charities and unjust enrichment.
Before jurors were seated, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers admonished Musk after OpenAI lawyers filed a complaint Monday about posts on X in which he attacked Altman as a “Craud Altman” and accused him of stealing a charity.
Rogers said he doesn’t like imposing a gag order but urged Musk to “try to control your tendency to use social media to get things going outside of the courtroom… Maybe you’ve never done that before.”
Musk, like Altman, agreed to minimize his social media activity.
Both are expected to testify at the hearing, as is Microsoft chief Satya Nadella.
The trial could offer a window into some of the egos and personalities shaping OpenAI, which has grown from a nonprofit research lab in Brockman’s apartment to a company worth more than $850 billion.
It also risks complicating plans for a potential IPO by casting doubt on OpenAI’s leadership and could intensify fears about AI technology more broadly.
OpenAI was co-founded by Musk and Altman in 2015 to develop artificial intelligence to benefit humanity and fend off competitors like Google.
Molo said “Elon became more concerned” as technology advanced, and he collaborated with Altman to “develop AI safely” after a 2015 meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama failed to address the risks of AI.
Hiring leading AI scientists like Ilya Sutskever is part of this process, Molo said.
Savitt disagreed, saying AI safety wasn’t a priority for Musk and that Musk was denigrating OpenAI employees who focused on it.
“He was calling them idiots,” Savitt said.
