Altman faces off against Musk, his OpenAI co-founder, in second day of high-stakes lawsuit
After a dramatic first day of opening statements and testimony from Elon Musk in his case against Sam Altman and OpenAI, the trial continues on Wednesday with a cross examination of the Tesla CEO. OpenAI’s defense attorneys will get a chance to press the world’s richest man on his allegations, which yesterday included suggesting Altman “stole a charity” and would endanger humanity with AI.
Musk is accusing his OpenAI co-founders Altman and Greg Brockman of breaking the founding agreement of the company to build AI to benefit humanity, instead shifting the non-profit to a for-profit structure and unjustly enriching themselves along the way. He is seeking the removal of Altman and Brockman, the undoing of the for-profit structure and $134bn in damages, which he wants redistributed to OpenAI’s non-profit arm.
OpenAI has rejected Musk’s claims as “motivated by jealousy”, stating that he was always aware of plans for the business and that he left OpenAI in 2018 only after a failed bid to take over. The company holds that what Musk describes as his $38m investment into the non-profit was actually a tax deductible donation, and does not entitle him to any say over the firm. OpenAI also emphasizes that it is still overseen by the original non-profit.
