Musk Frames OpenAI Suit as Fight to Preserve Charity Roots of AI Pioneer

Elon Musk testified for more than seven hours over three days this week at a trial in Oakland over the future of OpenAI, casting his lawsuit against the owner of ChatGPT as a defence of the institution of charitable giving.

Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX as well as the world’s richest person, is also suing OpenAI’s chief executive Sam Altman and its president Greg Brockman, saying they betrayed him and the public by abandoning the mission to be a benevolent steward of AI for humanity.

Below is a look at key testimony from the trial.

Musk Recasts OpenAI as a ‘Charity’

The word “charity” does not appear once in the 2015 blog post announcing the formation of OpenAI as a non-profit artificial intelligence research company. But Musk repeatedly described OpenAI as a charity and testified that Altman and Brockman reneged on an initial promise to retain the non-profit model.

“It was specifically meant to be a charity that does not benefit any individual person. I could have started it as a for-profit and I specifically chose not to,” Musk testified.

Musk Says OpenAI Would Not Exist Without Him

Building an AI research lab requires top-tier talent and considerable computing power. Musk said OpenAI relied on his connections for both.

“I came up with the idea, the name, recruited the key people, taught them everything I know, provided all of the initial funding,” Musk said.

Musk said he recruited Ilya Sutskever, a top researcher, from Google, while that company’s founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin repeatedly tried to entice him to stay.

“After I recruited Ilya to OpenAI, Larry Page refused to speak to me ever again,” Musk testified.

On computing power, Musk said OpenAI relied on his connections with Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella and Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang. “The only one who could actually call Satya Nadella and have him pick up was me,” Musk said. “The only reason he is in this thing is because of me. Those are his words.”

Musk Speaks About AI Safety

Musk testified that he learned from discussions with Larry Page that the Google co-founder lacked concern about AI safety.

“I said, ‘What if AI wipes out all humans?’ He said that would be fine so long as artificial intelligence survives. I said that was insane, that is just crazy. And then he called me a ‘speciesist’ because I care about humans more than AI. … The reason OpenAI exists is because Larry Page called me a ‘speciesist.’ … What would be the opposite of Google? An open-source non-profit.”

‘It Felt Like a Bribe’

Musk said he asked Altman in late 2022 about an investment of $10 billion in OpenAI by Microsoft, which Musk described as a “bait and switch” in a text message shown to jurors.

 

Altman responded, “I agree this feels bad.” Altman then offered Musk an opportunity to buy stock in OpenAI, which Musk said, “frankly, it felt like a bribe.”

Musk on Training His Own AI Company

 

Musk was asked why he used OpenAI to train his xAI company if he considered OpenAI’s model a danger. “It is standard practice to use other AIs to validate your AI,” Musk said. Asked why his company was not structured as a charity, Musk testified: “For-profit companies can be socially beneficial.”

 

‘We All Could Die’

 

Musk’s cross-examination by William Savitt, a lawyer for the OpenAI defendants, was tense at times. Musk accused Savitt of asking tricky and leading questions, which the judge said was permitted. Savitt was admonished for not allowing Musk to finish his thoughts. “Few answers are going to be complete, especially when you cut me off all the time,” Musk said.

 

There was also pre-trial tension when Musk’s lawyers sought to question an expert witness about the extinction risk of AI, something OpenAI opposed. “Extinction risk is a real problem. This is a real risk. We all could die,” said Musk’s lawyer Steven Molo.

 

The judge limited the scope of the expert’s testimony and said she thought “it is ironic that your client, despite these risks, is creating a company that is in the exact space.”

 

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