Overview
- The federal case opened in Oakland with opening statements and Elon Musk taking the stand to argue that artificial intelligence poses an existential risk, saying in court that “the AI could kill us all.”
- Musk alleges OpenAI abandoned its nonprofit mission, and he no longer seeks personal damages, asking instead that any award fund OpenAI’s nonprofit arm and that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman be removed from control.
- OpenAI counters that Musk left after failing to gain absolute control and now runs a rival, xAI, arguing the shift to a profit‑limited structure was needed to raise billions for chips, data centers, and talent, including through its deep partnership with Microsoft.
- The broader stakes stretched beyond the courtroom as the Wall Street Journal reported OpenAI missed internal targets for revenue and weekly ChatGPT users, prompting board scrutiny of data‑center contracts while the company weighs a stock‑market listing.
- Power and access concerns also sharpened as Google agreed to let the Pentagon use its AI tools despite worker protests, Anthropic kept its Mythos model restricted after finding thousands of severe software flaws, and press reports said OpenAI rolled out GPT‑5.5 and a new image model to reclaim technical momentum.