The OpenAI chief rejects claims he deceived Elon Musk as high-stakes AI trial nears its end
The OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, took the stand on Tuesday to defend himself and his company against a lawsuit by Elon Musk. Altman is set to be one of the final witnesses in the trial, which has pitted two of the tech industry’s most powerful men against each other in a dramatic courtroom showdown.
Musk has accused Altman and OpenAI of breaking the AI firm’s founding agreement by restructuring it into a for-profit enterprise, alleging that Altman essentially swindled him into co-founding the company and providing tens of millions in financial backing. Musk also claims Altman unjustly enriched himself in the process and is seeking the CEO’s removal from OpenAI, the redistribution of $134bn to the firm’s non-profit and the undoing of its for-profit conversion.
It’s wild to think Musk gave tens of millions to OpenAI and now claims Altman swindled him—sounds like they both had different ideas about what ‘non-profit’ meant from day one.
If Musk wins and OpenAI has to redistribute $134bn to the non-profit, that would completely reshape the AI landscape—but undoing the for-profit conversion seems like a legal stretch.
Altman taking the stand as one of the last witnesses makes me think the defense is confident, but Musk’s accusation of unjust enrichment is hard to ignore given how much OpenAI is now worth.
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