Elon Musk took the stand in a landmark trial against OpenAI, a company he helped set up, in a case that could steer how AI outfits behave.
Musk told the jurors: “I think they’re gonna try to make this lawsuit very complicated, but it’s actually very simple. It’s not OK to steal a charity.”
He then went on to claim that the case could decide the fate of every charity in the US before he was interupted by US district court, judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who told jurors Musk’s take was his opinion and had “no legal value whatsoever.”
Musk is accusing OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman, of steering him into donating tens of millions of dollars to launch a nonprofit for AI “for the benefit of humanity”, then pivoting it into a for-profit play.
OpenAI says Musk knew about the plan for a for-profit structure, backed it but demanded that it should be under his control.
The founders refused, OpenAI claims, Musk then spun up his own AI company and is now suing as part of a broader strategy of harassment aimed at slowing OpenAI down.
Musk demands that Open AI dump Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman from their top jobs. He is seeking damages worth more than $180 billion to be paid from OpenAI’s for-profit arm to its nonprofit parent, plus unwinding the company’s recent shift to a more traditional governance structure.
Legal experts admit that in this case Musk is “the underdog” and all his cash probably will not save him from what is a weak case.
Musk told the court he wanted control of OpenAI early on purely to make sure OpenAI would “go in the right direction” in “making safe AI.”
He pointed to his shrinking stake in Tesla as proof of intent, saying he owned around 60 per cent in 2004 and was down to around 15 per cent as of last year.
Musk said fear of Alphabet’s Google was part of the reason he got involved, as it was deep in tech without enough concern for safety.
Google, co-founder Larry Page was brought into it by name, with Musk recounting a chat about AI wiping out humanity.
Page supposedly shrugged, saying that would be “fine” as long as AI survived, which Musk branded “insane.”
Musk said Page called him a “speciest” for being “pro human”, and he claimed that exchange convinced him the world needed another AI shop to counter Google.
Of course, we only have Musk’s word that such a conversation took place. The pair are no longer speaking after Musk persuaded AI researcher Ilya Sutskever to leave Google and help start OpenAI.
Musk is expected back on the stand on Wednesday, and his longtime fixer Jared Birchall is set to testify too.
Musk, lead attorney Steven Molo: “Without Elon Musk, there would be no OpenAI,” he said in opening statements. He leaned hard on Musk’s safety fears and his early role, arguing he helped recruit people and poured in millions in early funding.
Molo tried to defuse the issue raised during jury selection on Monday, when some potential jurors admitted bias against Musk, citing his political campaigning.
Molo said: “Whether you like him or dislike him, you can’t disagree that he is a legend in the tech world.”
OpenAI’s lead attorney, William Savitt, painted a less heroic picture of Musk’s involvement.
Savitt showed a photo taken in 2016 at Brockman’s apartment, with Sutskever and Altman in a modest living room, and Musk nowhere in sight.
Savitt said the co-founders did the “sweat equity” while Musk turned up “once in a while” to give advice and “occasionally yell at people for not moving fast enough.”
A bar chart of donations was shown to jurors, with Savitt arguing that other donors’ money dwarfed Musk’s giving from 2016 to 2020.
Savitt said there were no promises OpenAI would stay nonprofit, and the only person who claims that was the company’s intention was Musk.
