Elon Musk to return to witness stand in trial over OpenAI's future

Elon Musk is set ‌to ​return to the witness stand on Wednesday in a high-stakes trial over a lawsuit he brought against OpenAI, alleging the company ditched its mission to be a responsible steward of AI for humanity in pursuit of profits. In testimony on Tuesday ‌before a nine-person jury in Oakland, California federal court, the world's richest person sharply criticized the 2019 decision by the nonprofit OpenAI co-founder and Chief Executive Sam Altman and its President Greg Brockman to create a for-profit entity.

"If we make it okay to loot a charity, the entire foundation of charitable giving in America will be destroyed," ‌Musk testified. OpenAI has said it created a for-profit entity to allow it to buy computing power and pay top scientists. Its lawyers have argued that Musk is ‌motivated by a compulsion to control OpenAI and bolster his own AI company, SpaceX unit xAI, which lags OpenAI in user adoption.

JUDGE SCOLDS MUSK OVER X POSTS The trial highlights the depth of the rupture between Musk and Altman. The two Silicon Valley icons once partnered in the quest to develop the fast-growing AI technology, a pillar of growth in the U.S. economy that is also fueling ⁠anxiety about job ​losses.

The pair co-founded OpenAI in 2015 ⁠to create a benevolent steward of the technology and fend off rivals such as Alphabet Inc's Google. Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, left OpenAI in 2018 after investing $38 million. Microsoft, also a ⁠defendant, invested $10 billion in OpenAI in 2023. On Wednesday, Musk, 54, will resume being questioned by his own lawyer. He is then expected to be cross-examined by lawyers for OpenAI and the ​other defendants, who have argued that AI safety was not a priority for Musk when he was with the company and that he derided ⁠employees who focused on it "jackasses."

Before jurors were seated on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers admonished Musk after OpenAI lawyers complained about posts on X in which Musk assailed Altman as "Scam Altman." Musk, ⁠known ​for brash public commentary, agreed to minimize his social media activity, as did Altman. MUSK SEEKS $150 BILLION IN DAMAGES The trial comes as OpenAI prepares for a potential initial public offering that could value it at $1 trillion, Reuters has reported. The company also faces growing competition from rivals including Anthropic, while a Wall Street Journal ⁠report that OpenAI had missed some internal performance targets weighed on the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite on Tuesday.

Musk is seeking $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, with ⁠any award going to OpenAI's charitable arm. ⁠He also wants OpenAI to revert to a nonprofit, with Altman and Brockman removed as officers and Altman removed from the board. His claims include breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment. OpenAI is currently structured as a public benefit corporation, in which ‌the nonprofit and other ‌investors including Microsoft hold stakes.

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