{"id":652538,"date":"2026-05-06T04:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T04:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/652538\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T04:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T04:20:12","slug":"openai-presidents-deeply-personal-diary-becomes-focus-in-musks-case-against-altman-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/652538\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI president\u2019s \u2018deeply personal\u2019 diary becomes focus in Musk\u2019s case against Altman | Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Elon Musk<\/a>\u2019s case against OpenAI<\/a> entered its second week, focus shifted to the company\u2019s president, Greg Brockman. Over the course of several hours on Monday and Tuesday, Brockman faced questions about his emails, texts and one piece of evidence that has become central to the trial: his personal diary.<\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s lawsuit revolves around his allegation that Brockman, OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman<\/a>, violated the founding agreement of the artificial intelligence firm by turning it into a for-profit entity. Musk argues that Altman and Brockman also unjustly enriched themselves in the process, essentially taking Musk\u2019s money while deceiving him about their true intent for the business. He is seeking Altman and Brockman\u2019s removal, the undoing of the for-profit restructuring and $134bn, which Musk wants distributed to OpenAI\u2019s non-profit.<\/p>\n

The journal, which Brockman kept during the company\u2019s founding years circa 2015, has provided a consistent line of attack for Musk\u2019s attorneys in the lead-up to the trial and during Brockman\u2019s time on the witness stand. Musk\u2019s team has presented numerous embarrassing excerpts, which OpenAI argues are taken out of context, to portray Brockman as self-interested and deceptive. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers cited Brockman\u2019s entries<\/a> multiple times in her decision to deny the AI firm\u2019s motion to prevent the case from going to trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinancially what will take me to $1B?\u201d Brockman wrote in one entry in which he asked himself what he \u201creally wants\u201d.<\/p>\n

During Brockman\u2019s pre-trial deposition, Musk\u2019s attorney brought up the journal a half-dozen times and asked why Brockman wrote \u201cit would be nice to be making the billions\u201d. Brockman responded that he meant it would be nice to have a revenue plan for the company outside donations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019d be wrong to steal the non-profit from him. to convert to a b-corp without him. that\u2019d be pretty morally bankrupt. and he\u2019s really not an idiot,\u201d Brockman wrote in another entry, which considered Musk\u2019s role in the company.<\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s lead attorney, Steven Molo, called Brockman to testify on Monday and questioned what he meant by several of his entries, specifically asking about the line that Musk was \u201creally not an idiot\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you mean to say that only an idiot would allow you to steal a charity?\u201d Molo asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Brockman responded.<\/p>\n

During a series of tense exchanges, Musk\u2019s attorney also repeatedly read out portions of Brockman\u2019s journal to the court and accused him of deceiving Musk.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou weren\u2019t honest with Elon Musk<\/a> when you told him that you wanted OpenAI to remain a non-profit, were you?\u201d Molo asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were absolutely honest with Elon,\u201d Brockman responded.<\/p>\n

OpenAI has denied all of Musk\u2019s claims, stating that the Tesla CEO is merely an aggrieved former co-founder who left the company in 2018 after a failed bid to take control. They argue that Musk was always aware of the intent to create a for-profit structure and that OpenAI<\/a> is still overseen by a non-profit that seeks to benefit humanity through AI.<\/p>\n

OpenAI published a blogpost in January, titled \u201cthe truth Elon left out\u201d, that attempted to show Musk\u2019s team misused quotes and cut out relevant sections. Brockman meanwhile posted a lengthy thread on X <\/a>on the same day as OpenAI\u2019s blog, which gave his explanation of his diary entries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have great respect for Elon, but the way he cherrypicked from my personal journal is beyond dishonest,\u201d Brockman said on X, stating that he was looking forward to being able to tell his full version of events.<\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s case against OpenAI, Altman and Brockman isn\u2019t the only lawsuit where the diary has drawn interest. In March, a federal judge ruled that OpenAI must give portions of Brockman\u2019s journal to the New York Times<\/a> and other plaintiffs in a case that accuses the AI firm of copyright infringement and illegally using newspapers\u2019 intellectual property to train their AI models.<\/p>\n

OpenAI\u2019s lawyers began their cross-examination of Brockman on Monday afternoon and carried on into Tuesday, giving him a chance to reframe some of Musk\u2019s accusations and reiterate his claim that he never deceived the world\u2019s richest person.<\/p>\n

When asked about the diary, Brockman downplayed its role as a record of events and referred to it as stream-of-consciousness writing that he never thought would be public.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very painful,\u201d Brockman said. \u201cIt\u2019s very deeply personal writings that weren\u2019t meant for the world to see but there\u2019s nothing in there that I\u2019m ashamed of.\u201d<\/p>\n

A meeting at a haunted mansion, then a rift<\/p>\n

Sarah Eddy, OpenAI\u2019s lawyer, asked Brockman on Tuesday about sharing equity with Musk and the centibillionaire\u2019s attempt to wrest control of the company. Eddy also questioned the company president about a 2017 meeting at a haunted mansion, which came after OpenAI\u2019s artificial intelligence won a video game competition in Seattle against the best human player in the world. Musk described the victory in an email as a \u201ctriggering event\u201d that signified the \u201ctime to make the next step for OpenAI\u201d, which Brockman testified he thought meant time for the company to create a for-profit.<\/p>\n

Musk emailed people at OpenAI suggesting that they celebrate the video game win with \u201cparty carnage\u201d at a haunted mansion he\u2019d just bought in San Francisco. Brockman testified that it was clear there had been a party there the night before and Musk\u2019s then girlfriend, Amber Heard, was present and \u201cserved some nice whisky\u201d. Brockman said \u201cit was a very celebratory moment\u201d and they discussed making OpenAI a for-profit.<\/p>\n

After the celebration, rifts grew among OpenAI\u2019s leadership, Brockman said. Altman believed there should be an equal split of equity but that Musk said he deserved more because he \u201cstarted the most multibillion-dollar companies in history\u201d and provided the most money to found OpenAI, the OpenAI president testified.<\/p>\n

According to Brockman, Musk said: \u201cLook, you guys are great, but I can start another AI company tomorrow. One tweet, that\u2019s all it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n

By 2018, Musk had left the board. Brockman testified that the departure came after a meeting where Musk \u201cstormed around the table\u201d and then said to him: \u201cWhen will you be departing OpenAI?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said that people needed to know he was in charge,\u201d Brockman testified. \u201cHe knows rockets; he knows electric cars; he doesn\u2019t know AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Musk\u2019s decision to leave the board became final, Brockman said he felt \u201crelief. Some sadness. The end of era. But it also freed us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Elon Musk\u2019s case against OpenAI entered its second week, focus shifted to the company\u2019s president, Greg Brockman.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-652538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}