Musk accused OpenAI of “stealing” from a non-profit organisation
A court case is ongoing in California regarding Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI.
The founder of Tesla and SpaceX is seeking $150 billion from the company he helped establish.
On the third day of the hearing, Musk took part in a tense cross-examination.
He accused Sam Altman and Greg Brockman of betraying OpenAI’s fundamental principles.
According to Musk, the organisation was established as a non-profit “lab to save humanity”.
OpenAI’s main line of defence is that Musk was aware of the commercialisation plans as early as 2017.
Musk himself stated that he had relied on verbal assurances from the management.
Responding to a lawyer’s question about the legal documents from that time, he admitted that he had not studied them in full.
“My testimony is that I didn’t read the small print, only the headings,” Musk said.
He also stated that Sam Altman had repeatedly assured him that the project would retain its non-commercial status.
Musk accuses OpenAI’s leadership of “unlawful enrichment” and breach of charitable trust.
According to him, the commercial entity has effectively absorbed the assets of the non-profit organisation.
“I don’t think you should turn a non-profit organisation into a commercial one. There’s nothing wrong with commercial organisations, you just can’t steal a charitable institution,” Musk stated during his testimony.
Musk’s lawyers also attempted to introduce expert testimony on the existential risks of artificial intelligence into the case.
They argued that “we could all die”.
However, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rejected this motion.
She described Musk’s concerns as ironic, given that he is himself building his own company, xAI.
The judge emphasised that the subject of the dispute is business ethics and the fulfilment of promises.
The safety of artificial intelligence as such, in her view, is not the subject of this legal proceeding.
Should Musk prevail, OpenAI, which is preparing for a trillion-dollar IPO, may be forced to revert to a non-commercial model.
Furthermore, in such a scenario, its management may be compelled to resign.
As reported by ThePublic, Elon Musk is seeking the dismissal of OpenAI’s management through the courts
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