Elon Musk testified in a trial in which he accuses Sam Altman and the co-founders of OpenAI of betraying him and deviating from the company's founding mission as a non-profit organization serving humanity.
Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015, filed the lawsuit in 2024 against Altman, Greg Brockman, and Microsoft over their investments in the company.
In his opening statement in Oakland, California, his lawyer said that Altman and Brockman "stole from a charitable foundation whose mission was the safe and open development of artificial intelligence."
Musk added before the court: "It's very simple, you can't steal from a charity."
For its part, OpenAI’s lawyer argued that “Musk did not get what he wanted from OpenAI,” accusing him of using his promises of funding to bully the founding members, trying to control the company and merge it with Tesla, and even forming a for-profit company in which he owns more than 50%.
He added that there is no record of promises that OpenAI would remain non-profit forever, and that what really mattered to Musk was winning the AI race with Google, not the non-profit status.
The dispute dates back to 2017, when the founders realized they needed more funding and settled on the idea of creating a for-profit arm to support the non-profit organization, with a cap on profits. However, Musk believes that Microsoft's 2022 acquisition, in which it invested $2 billion, was a "game changer" and violated all of OpenAI's commitments, as it was no longer open source and had become a for-profit company with Microsoft controlling a significant portion of its intellectual property through licensing.
Musk, the first witness, spoke about his life and his moves from South Africa to Canada and then to America, and about his long working hours, ranging from 80 to 100 hours a week without holidays. He also expressed his prediction that artificial intelligence will be "smarter than any human" next year, and likened controlling it to raising a smart child who is uncontrollable but can be instilled with values such as honesty and integrity.
It's worth noting that Musk and Altman agreed in 2015 on the need to build artificial intelligence in a more secure way than through profit-driven companies controlled by Google and Facebook. At the time, according to Musk, Google possessed all the money, computers, and talent in the field.
The trial is expected to last three weeks, with both Altman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testifying.
