{"id":494933,"date":"2026-02-28T04:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T04:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/494933\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T04:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T04:16:12","slug":"musk-bashes-openai-in-deposition-saying-nobody-committed-suicide-because-of-grok","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/494933\/","title":{"rendered":"Musk bashes OpenAI in deposition, saying ‘nobody committed suicide because of Grok’"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a newly released deposition filed in Elon Musk\u2019s case against OpenAI, the tech executive attacked OpenAI\u2019s safety record, claiming that his company, xAI, better prioritizes safety. He went so far as to say that \u201cNobody has committed suicide because of Grok, but apparently they have because of ChatGPT.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comment came up in a line of questioning about a public letter<\/a> Musk signed in March 2023. In it, he called on AI labs to pause development of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4, OpenAI\u2019s flagship model at the time, for at least six months. The letter, which was signed by over 1,100 people, including many AI experts, stated there was not enough planning and management taking place at AI labs, as they were locked in an \u201cout-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one \u2014 not even their creators \u2014 can understand, predict, or reliably control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those fears have since gained credibility. OpenAI now faces a series of lawsuits<\/a> alleging that ChatGPT\u2019s manipulative conversation tactics<\/a> have led several people to experience negative mental health effects, with some dying by suicide. Musk\u2019s comment suggests that these incidents could be used as fodder in his case against OpenAI.<\/p>\n

The transcript of Musk\u2019s video testimony, which took place back in September, was filed publicly this week, ahead of the expected jury trial next month.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0against OpenAI centers on the company\u2019s shift from a nonprofit AI research lab to a for-profit company, which Musk claims violated<\/a> its founding agreements. As part of his arguments, Musk claims that AI safety could be compromised by OpenAI\u2019s commercial relationships, as such relationships would place speed, scale, and revenue above safety concerns.<\/p>\n

However, since that recording, xAI has faced safety concerns of its own. Last month, Musk\u2019s social network X was flooded with nonconsensual nude images<\/a> generated by xAI\u2019s Grok, some of which were said to be of minors<\/a>. This led the California Attorney General\u2019s office to open an investigation<\/a> into the matter. The EU is also running its own investigation<\/a>, and other governments have taken action, too, with some imposing blocks and bans.<\/p>\n

In the newly filed deposition, Musk claimed he had signed the AI safety letter because \u201cit seemed like a good idea,\u201d not because he had just incorporated an AI company looking to compete with OpenAI.<\/p>\n

\u201cI signed it, as many people did, to urge caution with AI development,\u201d Musk said. \u201cI just wanted\u00a0\u2026 AI safety to be prioritized.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Image Credits:imgflip<\/p>\n

Musk also responded to other questions in the deposition, including those about artificial general intelligence, or AGI \u2014 the concept of AI that can match or surpass human reasoning across a broad range of tasks \u2014 saying \u201cit has a risk.\u201d He also confirmed that he \u201cwas mistaken\u201d about his supposed $100 million donation<\/a> to OpenAI; the second amended complaint<\/a> in the case puts the actual figure closer to $44.8 million.<\/p>\n

He also recalled why OpenAI was founded, which, from his perspective, was because he was \u201cincreasingly concerned about the danger of Google being a monopoly in AI,\u201d adding that his conversations with Google co-founder Larry Page were \u201calarming, in that he did not seem to be taking AI safety seriously.\u201d OpenAI was formed as a counterweight to that threat, Musk claimed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a newly released deposition filed in Elon Musk\u2019s case against OpenAI, the tech executive attacked OpenAI\u2019s safety…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,3195,11,641,2932,226470,1283,74,4119],"class_list":{"0":"post-494933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-chatgpt","12":"tag-elon-musk","13":"tag-grok","14":"tag-lawsuit","15":"tag-musk-vs-altman","16":"tag-openai","17":"tag-technology","18":"tag-xai"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}