In the summer of 2017, OpenAI built an artificial intelligence system that could play a popular video game called Defense of the Ancients, known as Dota.<\/p>\n
Inside a stadium in Seattle with more than 20,000 spectators, this A.I. system won an international Dota tournament, beating many of the world\u2019s best players<\/a>. When OpenAI\u2019s president, Greg Brockman, emailed Elon Musk about the win, the tech mogul was elated. \u201cTime to make the next step for OpenAI. This is the triggering event,\u201d said Mr. Musk, who was backing OpenAI financially.<\/p>\n The next day, Mr. Brockman met Mr. Musk and his chief of staff, Shivon Zilis, and several others at a party house Mr. Musk had recently purchased just south of the city. There, they began discussing ways of transforming OpenAI into a for-profit company, according to testimony by Mr. Brockman and other evidence presented on Tuesday in the blockbuster trial that pits Mr. Musk against the maker of ChatGPT.<\/p>\n Mr. Musk has sued OpenAI<\/a>, accusing Mr. Brockman and its chief executive, Sam Altman, of breaching the A.I. lab\u2019s founding contract by putting commercial gain over the public good. He is asking for $150 billion in damages and a court order that would unwind the for-profit company that OpenAI created last year. He also wants an order removing Mr. Altman from the OpenAI board of directors.<\/p>\n Mr. Musk founded OpenAI as a nonprofit in 2015 alongside Mr. Brockman, Mr. Altman and a group of A.I. researchers, before leaving the organization. Mr. Altman and the other founders then attached a for-profit company to the A.I. lab and began raising billions of dollars from the tech giant Microsoft and other investors.<\/p>\n With these commercial efforts, Mr. Musk argues, OpenAI has abandoned the original mission of the nonprofit. But during his second day of testimony, Mr. Brockman described how Mr. Musk spent several months in 2017 working with the other OpenAI founders to turn the operation into a for-profit company.<\/p>\n Under questioning from Sarah Eddy, one of OpenAI\u2019s lawyers, Mr. Brockman read a 2017 text he sent to Ms. Zilis in which he detailed a meeting he had with Mr. Musk that July. \u201cHe said nonprofit was def the right one early on, may not be the right one now,\u201d the text read, referring to Mr. Musk.<\/p>\n Mr. Brockman also detailed a meeting in August 2017 when he and another OpenAI co-founder, Ilya Sutskever, discussed a possible for-profit company with Mr. Musk. Mr. Musk had recently given Tesla electric cars to the other founders of OpenAI. To show his gratitude, Dr. Sutskever brought Mr. Musk a painting he had made of a Tesla.<\/p>\n During the meeting, Mr. Brockman and Dr. Sutskever said they would not agree to give Mr. Musk full control over the proposed for-profit, Mr. Brockman said from the stand. Mr. Musk then paused to think for several moments, before standing up, walking around the table and moving in Mr. Brockman\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought he was going to hit me. I thought he was going to physically attack me,\u201d Mr. Brockman told the court.<\/p>\n Before storming out of the room, Mr. Brockman said, Mr. Musk told them: \u201cWhen will you be departing OpenAI? I will withhold funding until you decide what you are going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n When Mr. Musk\u2019s lead counsel, Steven Molo, began another round of questions for Mr. Brockman, he showed a email from later in 2017 in which Mr. Musk said he \u201cwould unequivocally have initial control\u201d of the proposed for-profit company \u201cbut this will change quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Molo then suggested to Mr. Brockman that he did not have the business sense to understand that Mr. Musk did not want total control of the company, Mr. Brockman pushed back at the characterization. The two sparred for several minutes, with Mr. Molo pointedly raising his voice and Mr. Brockman responding firmly but calmly.<\/p>\n