The high-profile legal battle between Elon Musk and Sam Altman entered its second week of trial on Monday, with the future of OpenAI still hanging in the balance.
OpenAI President Greg Brockman took the stand on Monday. He is the latest prominent witness in a trial that has featured several heavyweight leaders from the artificial intelligence (AI) sector.
Musk's attorney, Steven Molo, began by directly questioning Brockman about the value of his stake in OpenAI's for-profit entity. Brockman confirmed that he received these shares without any financial contribution and that they are now valued at nearly $30 billion.
A new development in the case, disclosed by OpenAI in a briefing filed on Sunday, may be addressed by Brockman. According to OpenAI, just two days before the trial began, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX sent a message to Brockman to gauge his interest in a settlement. Brockman subsequently suggested both parties drop the claims, to which Musk responded with a threat.
The briefing indicates Musk stated at the time: "By the end of the week, you and Sam will be the most hated people in America. If you proceed, you will see."
During three days of testimony and cross-examination last week, Musk attempted to convince the nine-member jury that he was misled by OpenAI and Altman. He argued that he donated $38 million to a non-profit organization, only for the startup to transform into a for-profit company.
Musk has petitioned the court to remove Altman and Brockman from their leadership roles at OpenAI. He is seeking up to $180 billion in damages from the for-profit division to be paid to its non-profit parent organization, and demands the reversal of the company's recent shift to a conventional corporate governance structure.
Even if only one of these requests is granted by the court, it could alter OpenAI's development path and, by extension, reshape the direction of the entire AI industry.
Who Else is Involved Besides Brockman?
Musk's legal team presented Brockman's private journals, obtained during the discovery phase, as evidence alleging that OpenAI's founders secretly planned to transition the company to a for-profit structure.
Reportedly, in a 2017 private journal entry, Brockman wrote: "We've been thinking, maybe we should just transition to a for-profit. Making money for ourselves sounds pretty good."
He later argued in a recorded deposition from last September that the journal content "referred to developing some kind of revenue plan... in order to fulfill" OpenAI's mission.
With Brockman's testimony underway, Musk's legal team is expected to cite these private notes to support Musk's claim that OpenAI's founders were covertly considering for-profit options while accepting his donations.
Other witnesses expected to testify include Altman, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, and former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis. Zilis is the mother of four of Musk's children.
What Has Been Revealed So Far?
Musk made some candid remarks about his nascent AI company, xAI. In February, xAI was acquired by another of Musk's companies, SpaceX. He has repeatedly described xAI as a "very small company," stating it is only one-tenth the size of OpenAI.
During his testimony on Thursday, Musk voluntarily ranked leading AI companies without prompting from his lawyer, simultaneously downplaying OpenAI's standing.
In a tense cross-examination, an OpenAI lawyer questioned Musk on whether xAI had "distilled" technology from OpenAI. In the AI field, distillation refers to the process where one AI model learns by asking hundreds of thousands of questions to an existing model.
"Well, generally, AI companies distill models from other AI companies," Musk said. "So the answer is yes?" asked OpenAI's lead attorney, William Savitt. "Partly," Musk replied.
What Else Has the Trial Covered?
Both Musk and his long-time key aide, Jared Birchall, were subjected to questioning. Birchall, who typically avoids the public eye, was questioned about a 2017 filing intended to create a for-profit benefit corporation for OpenAI. This point is significant largely because Musk is trying to prove to the jury that Altman and Brockman turned a charitable organization into a for-profit company, effectively stealing it.
During Birchall's testimony last Thursday, text messages between him and Zilis were displayed on courtroom television screens. In one message, Zilis wrote: "Heads up. Looks like Greg [Brockman], Ilya [Sutskever], Elon are moving forward with the for-profit plan."
Musk testified earlier in the week that, while he did instruct Birchall to file these documents, it was merely "as a contingency, but it turned out to be unnecessary."
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