Musk vs OpenAI trial exposes private texts and journal entries as $150 billion lawsuit unfolds

Musk v. Altman week 2: OpenAI fires back, and Shivon Zilis reveals that Musk tried to poach Sam Altman

Last week, Musk took the stand, alleging that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman had deceived him into donating $38 million to the company. He claimed that they'd promised to maintain it as a nonprofit dedicated to developing AI for the benefit of humanity, only to later accept billions of dollars of investment from Microsoft and restructure the company to operate a for-profit subsidiary. This week, Brockman fired back with his side of the story, arguing that Musk had actually pushed for OpenAI to create a for-profit arm and fought a bitter battle to have "absolute control" over it. OpenAI has argued that Musk is suing because he didn't get his way and is now trying to undermine a competitor to his own AI company, xAI. Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member and the mother of four of Musk's children, also testified, revealing that Musk tried to recruit OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to lead a new AI lab at his electric-car company, Tesla. Musk cofounded OpenAI in 2015 with Altman, Brockman, and others but left in 2018. Now, he's asking the court to remove Altman and Brockman from their roles and to unwind the restructuring OpenAI undertook last year, which converted its for-profit subsidiary into a public benefit corporation. He is also seeking as much as $134 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, OpenAI's investor. The outcome of the trial could upend OpenAI's race toward an IPO at a valuation approaching $1 trillion. Meanwhile, xAI, which Musk founded in 2023, is now a division of his rocket company, SpaceX; the combined companies are also expected to go public as early as June, at a target valuation of $1.75 trillion. On Monday, Brockman walked into the courtroom in a blue suit and tie, holding hands with his wife, Anna Brockman. On the stand, he was serene, even chipper, as he recalled OpenAI's early days. But he grew agitated under impassioned questioning from Elon Musk's lawyer, Steven Molo. Altman listened in silence, while Anna Brockman sat behind him, fidgeting. Outside the courthouse, protesters rallying against the AI race sang hymns over the voices of lawyers giving press conferences. Two days before trial began, according to Brockman, Musk messaged him to ask if he would be interested in settling. When Brockman suggested that both sides drop their claims, Musk texted back: "By the end of this week, you and Sam will be the most hated men in America. If you insist, so it will be." Last week, Musk testified that he's suing to save OpenAI's nonprofit mission to develop AI safely, but he said he was open to seeing OpenAI become a capped-profit company with moderate investments from Microsoft. This week, Brockman told the jury that Musk was never truly committed to keeping OpenAI a nonprofit. In the summer of 2017, when an AI model that OpenAI built beat the world's best players in a video game called Dota 2, Musk hosted a gathering at his "Haunted Mansion" near San Francisco. The house was splattered with confetti and cups, Brockman recalled, and the actress Amber Heard, who was Musk's girlfriend at the time, served whiskey.

What's Happened So Far at the Musk v. OpenAI Trial

Andrew here. We've got an inside-the-courtroom report by Mike Isaac on the Musk v. OpenAI trial. I was fascinated to hear the diary entries of Greg Brockman, an OpenAI co-founder who testified this week, read aloud. Much of Brockman's testimony focused on his musings about the huge financial stakes of converting OpenAI from a nonprofit to a for-profit enterprise. Brockman also seemed to know that the process would probably lead to a battle with Musk, OpenAI's initial financial backer. "Can't see us turning this into a for-profit without a very nasty fight," he wrote, adding: "It'd be wrong to steal the nonprofit from him. That'd be pretty morally bankrupt." Brockman suggested that Musk would have a reasonable argument, writing: "He's really not an idiot. His story will correctly be that we weren't honest with him in the end about still wanting to do the for-profit just without him." More below. Three takeaways from the big A.I. trial At its core, the trial over Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI is a complicated, slightly navel-gazing legal battle over nonprofit contract law. It also happens to feature many of the main characters in the high-stakes race to develop superior artificial intelligence tools. Two weeks in, the jury trial has provided moments of drama and taken some interesting twists, reports Mike Isaac, who is covering the proceedings for The Times at the federal courthouse in Oakland, Calif. The context: Musk is suing OpenAI and Microsoft, the A.I. company's biggest outside investor, for $150 billion. He claims that Sam Altman, an OpenAI co-founder and now its C.E.O., defrauded him out of millions by changing OpenAI from a nonprofit to a for-profit company.

'Directionally Very Bad': Everything You Missed During Week 2 of the Elon Musk vs OpenAI Trial

We're officially two weeks deep in the trial pitting Elon Musk against Sam Altman and OpenAI over the latter's allegedly illegal decision to convert their organization into a for-profit business. After last week's Musk-dominated time in front of the judge, the past few days have been primarily dominated by OpenAI's time in the barrel. While it's tough to get into a disreputable figure contest with Elon Musk, the fine folks at the world's biggest AI company certainly came out looking worse than when they started. In case you opted to just take the "a pox on both their houses" approach and tune out of the trial, here's a quick catch-up of the biggest moments you might have missed. OpenAI President Greg Brockman had to live every middle schooler's worst nightmare: reading his own diary in public. He admitted it was a nightmare on the stand, telling OpenAI's counsel that it was “very painful" and called the entries "very deeply personal writings that weren’t meant for the world to see." But see it they did. And Brockman's private thoughts, cherrypicked though they may be, did not reflect particularly well on his intentions. In one entry, Brockman asked himself, “Financially, what will take me to $1B?†and later wrote, “It would be nice to be making the billions," according to The Guardian. Hard to argue with him there; it would be nice to be making the billions. Starting a nonprofit probably isn't the best path to achieve it, though. That's something that Brockman also seemed to recognize. In another entry, he mused about the possibility of cutting Musk out of OpenAI and converting the company into a for-profit enterprise. “It’d be wrong to steal the non-profit from him. to convert to a b-corp without him. that’d be pretty morally bankrupt," he wrote, referencing Musk's role at the firm. He also acknowledged that he “Can’t see us turning this into a for-profit without a very nasty fight," which was a pretty solid prediction, as it turns out. Sam Altman secured the dubious honor of having his text messages committed to the public ledger and immediately getting turned into a meme. OpenAI's past and present CEO came off as less than composed in a series of texts sent to then-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati while the company's board was in the process of removing him back in 2023. The exchange, documented by Business Insider, took place while Murati was on the phone with the board, which was getting ready to oust Altman. Clearly a bit concerned, Altman asked, "Can you indicate directionally good or bad?" saying that "others" are anxious. Murati responded, "directionally very bad," which is just an all-timer of a way to tell someone they are about to get fired. Despite that, Altman didn't seem totally convinced that was happening. When Murati said the board was "convinced about their decision," Altman asked, "for me to be fired? or some new thing?" seemingly hoping that actually all of this was about something else entirely and not his future. Turns out it was not. "Yes for you to be gone," Murati replied. Things didn't get better for Altman when Murati spoke about him directly rather than just in text. While on the stand, Murati admitted that she believed Altman had at times lied to her about AI safety protocols and said that she felt like he undermined her in her role as CTO, per Futurism. While lots of the juiciest tidbits of the trial come from the past being dredged up, one bit of drama occurred very recently: Just days before the trial was set to begin, Musk texted Brockman and tried to secure a settlement. When Brockman responded to suggest that both sides drop their claims and move on, Musk offered up what seems to be a pretty thinly veiled threat. “By the end of this week, you and Sam will be the most hated men in America. If you insist, so it will be," he wrote. It does seem like both Altman and Brockman have taken a bit of a reputational hit as a result of what has been revealed during the trial. But there is one really big obstacle in the way of them becoming the most hated men in America: Elon Musk still exists. It's strange to think Elon Musk's penchant for producing offspring matters as it relates to this case, but the fact is that his biggest ally happened to work with him at OpenAI and is also the mother of four of his children. Last week, we learned that Shivon Zilis lives with Musk and the relationship is... complicated. Musk called her his “chief of staff†and “close advisor," but never girlfriend or romantic partner. We got additional details this week, though how clarifying they are is questionable. According to The Verge, Zilis denied ever being Musk's chief of staff. She described their relationship as being “friends and colleagues" who also happened to have a "one-off" that was "romantic in nature." That was around 2017. Then in 2021, she had two kids with Muskâ€"twins who were conceived via IVF. She described their relationship at that time as "platonic." She didn't tell anyone, including her own father, that she was pregnant until after the kids were born. She admitted that Musk's war with OpenAI "pruned my friend network." And then she apparently had two more kids with him. Whatever lifestyle works for you. Perhaps the most interesting bit of drama to come out of this week is the revelation that Musk's major protestation that turning OpenAI into a for-profit amounts to a dereliction of duty and an affront to everything they stood for might not be as genuine as he's presented it. The biggest bit of evidence: Musk himself seemingly floated the idea of going the for-profit route. According to The Verge, Zilis' testimony included emails from 2017 and 2018. At one point, she mentioned that it was discussed that OpenAI “switch to for profit in next couple of weeks (woah fast!).†That is apparently an idea that Musk was involved with batting around. In another email, Zilis apparently offered Musk some ideas to kickstart Tesla's AI efforts. "One was making OpenAI a public benefit corporation subsidiary of Tesla. One was getting Altman as an 'anchor' for TeslaAI," she wrote, which doesn't seem like the kind of thing someone who is insistent on a company remaining a non-profit would consider. Zilis wasn't the only one who was seemingly under the impression that a for-profit shift wasn't completely off the table. Brockman testified that, after the company achieved a milestone in 2017, Musk said it was “time to make the next step for OpenAI.†Brockman interpreted that as meaning it was time to start a for-profit, per The Guardian. In fact, he claims they discussed that very thing with Musk at a party. According to Brockman's telling, Musk ultimately issued an ultimatum: he would have full control over a for-profit arm of OpenAI, or the organization would stay a non-profit. So, seemingly, the issue wasn't so much about maintaining OpenAI's mission as it was about Musk maintaining control.