Elon Musk took the stand on Tuesday at a high-stakes trial over the future of OpenAI, casting his lawsuit against the ChatGPT maker as a defense of charitable giving.
The world's richest person is suing OpenAI, its co-founder and Chief Executive Sam Altman and its President Greg Brockman, saying they betrayed him and the public by abandoning OpenAI's mission to be a benevolent steward of AI for humanity, and transforming the nonprofit into a profit-seeking juggernaut.
“If we make it OK to loot a charity, the entire foundation of charitable giving in America will be destroyed," Musk testified on the first day of the trial. "That’s my concern.”
Musk, who founded automaker Tesla TSLA.O and rocket company SpaceX, characterized OpenAI as his brainchild as well.
"I came up with the idea, the name, recruited the key people, taught them everything I know, provided all of the initial funding," Musk said. "It was specifically meant to be for a charity that does not benefit any individual person. I could’ve started it as a for profit and I specifically chose not to.”
