{"id":612578,"date":"2026-04-29T04:25:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T04:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/612578\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T04:25:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T04:25:11","slug":"elon-musk-testifies-as-trial-against-openai-ceo-sam-altman-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/612578\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk testifies as trial against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO, world\u2019s richest man and OpenAI cofounder, took the stand Tuesday in a high-stakes trial revolving around a bitter feud with his former friend Sam Altman that could reshape the future development of artificial intelligence.<\/a><\/p>\n

His testimony at the Oakland, California, federal courthouse kicked off a legal drama that is expected to brim with intrigue and potentially embarrassing details about the two tech moguls. Musk filed the lawsuit<\/a> against Altman and his top lieutenant, Greg Brockman, along with Microsoft over its investments in OpenAI, in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cFundamentally, I think they\u2019re going to try to make this lawsuit … very complicated, but it\u2019s actually very simple,\u201d Musk said. \u201cWhich is that it\u2019s not OK to steal a charity.\u201d <\/p>\n

The nine-person jury was selected Monday and the trial is scheduled to take three weeks. <\/p>\n

In the civil lawsuit, Musk accuses Altman<\/a> and Brockman of double-crossing him by straying from the San Francisco company\u2019s founding mission to be a steward of a revolutionary technology. In his opening statement, Musk\u2019s attorney, Steven Molo, quoted OpenAI\u2019s mission statement when it was created as a nonprofit for the benefit of humanity, not constrained by the need to generate financial enrichment for anyone. <\/p>\n

Altman and Brockman, aided by Microsoft, stole a charity \u201cwhose mission was the safe, open development of artificial intelligence,\u201d Molo said. Musk is seeking damages and Altman\u2019s ouster from OpenAI\u2019s board. <\/p>\n

OpenAI has brushed off Musk\u2019s allegations as a case of sour grapes aimed at undercutting its rapid growth and bolstering Musk\u2019s own xAI, which he launched in 2023 as a competitor.<\/p>\n

Both sides recount the start of a bitter divide<\/p>\n

In his opening statement, OpenAI lawyer William Savitt told jurors \u201cwe are here because Mr. Musk didn\u2019t get his way with OpenAI.\u201d <\/p>\n

Savitt said Musk used his promises of funding to bully OpenAI<\/a> founding members and tried to take control of OpenAI and merge it with Tesla. In fact, he said Musk wanted to form a for-profit company and own more than 50% of it. <\/p>\n

There is no record, Savitt said, of promises made to Musk that OpenAI was going to remain a nonprofit forever. What Musk ultimately cared about, he said, was not OpenAI\u2019s nonprofit status but winning the AI race with Google. <\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s attorney said the case is not about Musk, but rather Altman, Brockman and Microsoft. <\/p>\n

By 2017, about two years after OpenAI\u2019s founding, it became clear that OpenAI would need more money, and Molo said the founders eventually settled on the idea of creating a for-profit arm of OpenAI that would support the nonprofit. Terms were capped for investors so they \u201ccouldn\u2019t make infinite profit.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing wrong with a nonprofit having a for-profit subsidiary, but (it) has to advance the mission,\u201d Molo said. <\/p>\n

Microsoft initially invested $2 billion in OpenAI. Then, in 2022, news spread that OpenAI had done a deal with Microsoft and it was a \u201cgame-changer,\u201d Molo said, which violated \u201cevery commitment\u201d OpenAI made not just to Musk but to the world. It was no longer open source, it became a for-profit company for the benefit of the defendants and Microsoft was going to have control, through licensing, of much of its intellectual property, Molo said.<\/p>\n

After opening statements, Musk\u2019s side began presenting a tale of alleged betrayal, deceit and ambition that caused OpenAI to pivot from its founding mission as an altruistic startup to a capitalistic venture<\/a> now valued at $852 billion. <\/p>\n

Musk testifies on how he sees AI evolving<\/p>\n

Musk was the first to testify, with his lawyer starting off asking about his life story. This included details about his move, at 17, from South Africa to Canada where for a time Musk said he worked as a lumberjack among other odd jobs, then to the U.S. He recounted the slew of companies he founded and runs, including SpaceX, Tesla, The Boring Company, Neuralink and others. <\/p>\n

Asked how he has time for everything, Musk said he works 80 to 100 hours a week, doesn\u2019t take vacations and owns no vacation homes or yachts. <\/p>\n

Molo also asked Musk about his views on AI. Musk said he expects AI to be \u201csmarter than any human\u201d as soon as next year. Musk said a longstanding concern about AI is the question of what happens when computers become much smarter than humans. Comparing it to having a \u201cvery smart child,\u201d Musk said when the child grows up \u201cyou can\u2019t control that child,\u201d but you can instill values such as honesty, integrity and being good. <\/p>\n

Musk recounted his version of OpenAI\u2019s founding, which he said essentially happened because of a discussion he had with Google co-founder Larry Page, who called him a \u201cspecieist\u201d for elevating the survival of humanity over that of AI. <\/p>\n

The kinship between Musk and Altman was forged in 2015 when they agreed to build AI in a more responsible and safer way than the profit-driven companies controlled by Google\u2019s Page and Sergey Brin and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, according to evidence submitted ahead of the trial.<\/p>\n

At that time, Musk said, Google had all the money, all the computers and all the talent for AI. \u201cThere was no counterbalance.\u201d <\/p>\n

Musk recalled there was discussion early on about alternative sources for funding OpenAI beyond donations, and he wasn\u2019t opposed to it having a for-profit arm, but \u201cthe tail shouldn\u2019t wag the dog.\u201d There would be a profit limit, and once artificial general intelligence, or AGI, was \u201cfigured out,\u201d the for-profit would cease to exist. <\/p>\n

Musk is expected to continue testifying Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Altman, OpenAI\u2019s CEO, is also expected to testify, along with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, one of the technology leaders who helped fund the late 2022 release of ChatGPT, the chatbot that unleashed the current AI boom that has propelled the stock market to record heights. <\/p>\n

Altman\u2019s court appearance likely made him unavailable to attend an Amazon event across San Francisco Bay on Tuesday at which both companies announced an expanded partnership.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I could be there with you in person today,\u201d Altman told attendees of Amazon\u2019s event in San Francisco via a prerecorded video message. \u201cMy schedule got taken away from me today.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Technology Writer Matt O\u2019Brien contributed to this story from Providence, Rhode Island. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO, world\u2019s richest man and OpenAI cofounder, took the stand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[4613,12300,181,28,2356,11,793,83695,851,11382,185933,12424,1536,22178,22997,7047,49024,83694,265939,74,1019,2226,795,265940],"class_list":{"0":"post-612578","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-alphabet","9":"tag-amazon-com","10":"tag-artificial-intelligence","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-california","13":"tag-elon-musk","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-greg-brockman","16":"tag-inc","17":"tag-information-technology","18":"tag-larry-page","19":"tag-mark-zuckerberg","20":"tag-microsoft-corp","21":"tag-oakland","22":"tag-openai-inc","23":"tag-sam-altman","24":"tag-satya-nadella","25":"tag-sergei-brin","26":"tag-steven-molo","27":"tag-technology","28":"tag-tesla","29":"tag-trials","30":"tag-u-s-news","31":"tag-william-savitt"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612578","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=612578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}