Overview
- A civil jury trial in federal court in Oakland is underway with a nine-member panel, and Elon Musk took the stand this week in proceedings expected to run about three weeks.
- Musk argues Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and Microsoft turned OpenAI from a nonprofit research effort into a profit-driven venture, seeks roughly $134 billion, and wants Altman removed from the board.
- His lawyers say a later Microsoft deal shifted control through key licenses and closed off earlier open research, and Musk testified he kept funding early OpenAI with about $38 million based on assurances it would remain a nonprofit.
- OpenAI’s counsel counters that Musk sued because he did not get his way, says there was no pledge to stay nonprofit forever, and argues Musk tried to secure majority control and even explored a Tesla tie-up.
- Musk forecast AI could outthink any person as soon as next year, then under cross-examination said Tesla is not working on artificial general intelligence now, and high-profile witnesses such as Altman and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella are expected next.