OAKLAND: Elon Musk testified for more than seven hours over three days in a California court this week, defending his lawsuit against OpenAI as an effort to protect what he described as its original charitable purpose.
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The billionaire, who leads Tesla and SpaceX, is suing OpenAI along with its chief executive Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman. Musk alleges they abandoned the organisation’s founding mission of developing artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity and instead turned it into a profit-driven enterprise.
During testimony, Musk repeatedly described OpenAI as a “charity,” claiming he helped found it with the intention that it would not benefit any individual financially. He said he provided initial funding, recruited key personnel such as AI researcher Ilya Sutskever, and leveraged connections with industry leaders including Satya Nadella and Jensen Huang to secure computing resources.
Musk also revisited past disagreements with Larry Page, claiming concerns over artificial intelligence safety contributed to the creation of OpenAI as a counterbalance to major tech firms.
He criticised a reported $10 billion investment by Microsoft in OpenAI, calling it a “bait and switch” from the organisation’s original non-profit structure. Musk told the court he declined an offer to purchase equity, describing it as inappropriate.
The trial also touched on broader concerns about AI safety, with Musk warning that unchecked development could pose existential risks. “Extinction risk is a real problem… we all could die,” his legal team argued during proceedings.
Lawyers representing OpenAI challenged Musk’s claims, arguing that transitioning to a for-profit structure was necessary to compete in the rapidly evolving AI sector.
The case is being closely watched as it could have major implications for the governance, funding models, and future direction of artificial intelligence development.
