The 5 most unhinged revelations from Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI |
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The 5 most unhinged revelations from Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI
The Musk v. OpenAI trial is over. Here are the receipts.
Friendship breakups are never easy, but few are as messy and expensive as the collapse of Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s once thriving tech bromance.
On Thursday, closing arguments wrapped up in Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, leaving a jury to deliberate next week whether Altman and other executives “stole a charity” (as one of Musk’s lawyers put it) by turning much of what was once a nonprofit research lab into a corporate behemoth. For three weeks, lawyers on both sides have deployed an increasingly unhinged body of evidence in an attempt to discredit both men and prove they’re untrustworthy and power-hungry.
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If the jury rules that Musk was duped into donating roughly $38 million to OpenAI under false pretenses, then Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will decide on the damages, which could potentially lead to $150 billion in financial restitution and, while unlikely, could also include major changes to OpenAI’s leadership and governance structure. Even if the jury does not rule in Musk’s favor, however, it’s possible that the evidence put forth at trial will be enough to convince state regulators to revisit the agreements that allowed OpenAI to restructure into a for-profit enterprise to begin with.
Lawyers tell me that whoever loses will likely appeal, meaning the catfight might not be over yet. But for now, here are five major revelations from the trial.
Elon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wants
OpenAI’s board members questioned Sam Altman’s honesty
Musk’s legal team sought to paint Altman as a deeply untrustworthy person, prone to lying to his co-founders, employees, and board members if it meant advancing his interests.
Multiple former OpenAI employees and board members testified as much in the courtroom. Altman’s “pattern of behavior related to his honesty and candor” led directly to his temporary ouster as CEO in 2023, said Helen Toner, a former board member, in a video........