Musk’s testimony opened the first full day of a civil courtroom battle over how OpenAI’s leadership has treated the company’s original nonprofit mission and its later partnerships as it scaled artificial intelligence. The trial is being held in federal court in Oakland, California, after jurors were selected Monday and the proceedings were set to run for about three weeks.
Musk’s appearance came after his lawyers laid out the case to jurors, portraying the dispute as a break from a mission framed around safe, open development of artificial intelligence. Musk also testified about his background and work habits before turning to his view of how artificial intelligence is likely to evolve, in testimony expected to continue Wednesday.
In testimony described in the case reporting, Musk faced questions about his life story and career path, including his move from South Africa to Canada at age 17 and later work and moves to the United States. The testimony also covered the broad range of companies he founded and runs, including SpaceX, Tesla, The Boring Company, and Neuralink.
Musk told the court he works 80 to 100 hours per week, does not take vacations, and owns no vacation homes or yachts, according to the account of his testimony. His lawyer then asked about his views on artificial intelligence, including a forecast that AI will become smarter than any human “as soon as next year,” and concerns about what happens when computers surpass humans. Musk compared that risk to raising a “very smart child,” saying that once the child grows up, “you can’t control that child,” while people can instill values including “honesty, integrity and being good.”
The trial’s dispute is rooted in a 2024 lawsuit Musk filed against Altman, Brockman, and Microsoft, according to the reporting on opening arguments and the start of testimony. Musk’s side argued that Altman and Brockman double-crossed him by leaving the San Francisco company’s founding mission for a steward role in a revolutionary technology.
Musk’s lawyer, Steven Molo, told jurors that the lawsuit was not really about Musk personally, but about Altman, Brockman, and Microsoft. Molo quoted OpenAI’s mission statement from when it was created as a nonprofit for the benefit of humanity, and he said Altman and Brockman, aided by Microsoft, stole a charity whose mission was “the safe, open development of artificial intelligence.” Musk is seeking damages and Altman’s ouster from OpenAI’s board, the reporting said.
Molo’s opening included discussion of how the nonprofit’s founding arrangements later evolved, including the idea of creating a for-profit arm with investor terms capped so investors “couldn’t make infinite profit.” He said there was “nothing wrong with a nonprofit having a for-profit subsidiary,” but that the subsidiary has to advance the mission, according to the description of his argument.
Molo also told jurors that Microsoft initially invested $2 billion in OpenAI and later, after reports that OpenAI had a deal with Microsoft, the arrangement became a “game-changer.” In the account of the opening statement, Molo argued that the deal violated “every commitment” OpenAI made and shifted OpenAI’s development away from openness toward a structure in which Microsoft would have licensing control over much of its intellectual property.
Altman’s side, led by OpenAI lawyer William Savitt, disputed Musk’s portrayal from the start of the case. Savitt told jurors that “we are here because Mr. Musk didn’t get his way with OpenAI.” He said Musk used promises of funding to “bully” OpenAI founding members and tried to take control of OpenAI and merge it with Tesla, and that Musk wanted to form a for-profit company and own more than 50% of it.
Savitt also told jurors there was no record of promises that OpenAI would remain a nonprofit forever, according to the reporting. In Savitt’s account, what Musk ultimately cared about was not OpenAI’s nonprofit status but winning the AI race with Google.
Musk also recounted his version of the early relationship between him and Altman and said his kinship with Altman was forged in 2015, when they agreed to build AI more responsibly and safely than profit-driven companies. Musk said at the time that Google had the money, computers, and talent for AI, which he described as leaving “no counterbalance,” in testimony described in the trial coverage.
Musk testified that there was discussion early on about funding outside donations and that he was not opposed to a for-profit arm, but said “the tail shouldn’t wag the dog,” according to the reporting. He said there should be a profit limit and that once artificial general intelligence was “figured out,” the for-profit arm would cease to exist.
Altman and other key witnesses were expected to follow. The coverage said Altman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella are expected to testify, and that Nadella was among technology leaders who helped fund the late 2022 release of ChatGPT, which was described as sparking the current AI boom. The report also noted that Altman likely was not available to attend an Amazon event across San Francisco Bay on Tuesday because of his court schedule, adding that he told attendees via a prerecorded video message: “I wish I could be there with you in person today,” and that “My schedule got taken away from me today.”