Live updates from Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s court battle over the future of OpenAI

Sam Altman and Elon Musk are facing off in a high-stakes trial that could alter the future of OpenAI and its most well-known product, ChatGPT. In 2024, Musk filed a lawsuit accusing OpenAI of abandoning its founding mission of developing AI to benefit humanity and shifting focus to boosting profits instead.

Elon Musk, his financial manager and Neuralink CEO, Jared Birchall, and OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman have already testified before the jury. Now, on Wednesday, May 6th, Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member who shares four children with Musk, is taking the stand, and the courtroom is seeing testimony from former OpenAI exec Mira Murati via video.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is scheduled to appear on Monday, with OpenAI cofounder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever lined up to testify after that.

Musk was a cofounder of OpenAI and claims that Altman and Brockman tricked him into giving the company money, only to turn their backs on their original goal. However, OpenAI says that “This lawsuit has always been a baseless and jealous bid to derail a competitor” in a bid to boost Musk’s own SpaceX / xAI / X companies that have launched Grok as a competitor to ChatGPT.

In his lawsuit, Musk is asking for the removal of Altman and Brockman, and for OpenAI to stop operating as a public benefit corporation. Musk has also demanded that OpenAI’s nonprofit receive up to $150 billion in damages he’s asking for if he wins the case.

People to Know

Plaintiff

Elon Musk — plaintiff, OpenAI cofounder and now CEO of rival xAI

Steven Molo — lead counsel for plaintiff

Jared Birchall — manager of Musk’s family office

Shivon Zilis — former OpenAI board member who shares multiple children with Musk

Defendant

Sam Altman — defendant, CEO of OpenAI 

William Savitt — lead counsel for defendant

Greg Brockman — president of OpenAI as well as a cofounder 

Ilya Sutskever — former chief scientist at OpenAI and a cofounder

Judge

Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers — aka YGR, trial judge

Here’s all the latest on the trial between Musk and Altman:

• Shivon’s emails aren’t great for Musk.
• The big sticking point for Brockman and Sutskever was control.
• Sam Altman loves exclamation marks.
• Mira Murati tells the court that she couldn’t trust Sam Altman’s words
• Zilis’ past emails mentioned in court proceedings include her referencing a potential “conversion to for-profit” for OpenAI.
• This is getting interesting.
• Zilis sent Altman a text message of support after his 2023 ouster.
• Zilis said another concern she had about Altman related to OpenAI’s potential deal with Helion.
• Also in the spirit of clarifications this morning…
• Zilis said she had major concerns about OpenAI’s board not being notified in advance of ChatGPT’s release.
• Zilis said that the fallout from Altman’s 2023 ouster changed her view of OpenAI’s Microsoft deal.
• When asked how much Musk works per week, Zilis laughed.
• Musk’s team has called Shivon Zilis.
• Murati says problems with Altman persisted after he returned to the company.
• “OpenAI was at catastrophic risk of falling apart” when Altman was fired, Murati says.
• We are seeing video testimony from Mira Murati’s deposition.
• We are clearing up “a few inaccuracies from yesterday.”
• We are taking care of some matters before the jury comes in.
• Microsoft and OpenAI’s definition of AGI was just revealed.
• The jurors look as bored as I feel.
• Brockman steps down. We are looking at the video deposition of Robert Wu.
• Brockman is telling the truth about considering removing Musk from the board.
• Every time Molo makes a summary of Brockman’s testimony, Brockman objects to it.
• We are now fighting about “Either go do something on your own or continue with OpenAI as a non-profit.”
• One other thing I don’t understand…
• Molo is trying to reiterate what he did more effectively yesterday.
• “You had no problems answering your lawyers’ questions,” Molo is practically yelling.
• Molo asks Brockman if Musk was “being mean” to him.
• We are back to quibbling.
• We are now discussing the OpenAI Foundation layoffs.
• Microsoft is done, bless them.
• Microsoft is now getting to talk to Brockman.
• The blip.
• We are now discussing Shivon Zilis.
• We are now going through the assorted releases of GPT models.
• When Musk resigned, he gave a speech to OpenAI’s employees that might have been demoralizing…
• One observation from Brockman and Sutskever’s emails.
• We are now recontextualizing more entries from Brockman.
• There were discussions between Brockman, Altman, and Sutskever about removing Musk from the board.
• We are back from a break.
• “I thought he was going to hit me,” Brockman says of Musk.
• Elon Musk doesn’t love anything he can’t control.
• Sam Altman discussed an equal equity split…
• We are now discussing Brockman’s journal.
• Brockman talks Dota 2.
• Elon Musk tried to get Bill Gates to donate to OpenAI.
• First sidebar of the trial.
• OpenAI had layoffs at Musk’s insistence.
• Greg Brockman tells the court that while at OpenAI, he and three others worked at Tesla.
• YGR is on the bench.
• Google’s AI architect lived rent-free in Elon Musk’s head
• OpenAI’s president does ‘all the things,’ except answer a question
• Jury is sent out for the day.
• We are hearing about the early days of OpenAI.
• Early worries about Musk came from Ilya Sutskever.
• Brockman is describing his bromance with Altman.
• “I do all the things.”
• Brockman says we are 80 percent of the way to AGI.
• Open AI’s direct examination of Brockman is pretty sedate so far… aside from Tesla.
• OpenAI’s lawyers are now getting their shot at Brockman.
• For real, I think nerds should not testify in court.
• We are now looking at Brockman’s other financial dealings.
• We finished with the Microsoft investment pretty quickly.
• Altman didn’t return after we took our break.
• We are presently having a fight about purple boxes.
• We have been doing the same question for perhaps the last five minutes.
• “Financially what will take me to $1B?”
• “His story will correctly be that we weren’t honest with him in the end about still wanting to do the for profit just without him.”
• Greg Brockman’s journal: “it’d be wrong to steal the non-profit from him.”
• Brockman is not doing himself any favors.
• Brockman’s cross-examination isn’t as testy as Musk’s, but he’s also pushing back on a lot of questions.
• Is sending stuff to Sam Teller and Shivon Zilis the same as sending it to Musk?
• Brockman and Altman’s alliance?
• “Is Demis Hassabis evil?”
• Greg Brockman is talking about the earliest days of OpenAI.
• Greg Brockman and Sam Altman have just entered the courtroom.
• We’re done with Russell.
• “The age of abundance for Elon.”
• Oh now we have some meat.
• Elon Musk’s expert doesn’t follow him on X.
• I am befuddled by this expert testimony.
• We are dealing with the cross now.
• Sure is lucky that mentions of Grok’s safety issues got limited.
• Individual vs. systemic risk.
• We now have a very boring expert witness testifying to AI risks.
• Stuart Russell is here to tell us about AI.
• “I need that today. That’s good. I like that.”
• Greg Brockman won’t be asked about Musk’s threat.
• Elon Musk tried to settle before the trial — and got threatening.
• Musk v. Altman is getting a live audio stream next week.
• OpenAI Tesla receipts and other Musk v. Altman documents.
• All the evidence revealed so far in Musk v. Altman
• Here’s how Gabe Newell and Hideo Kojima ended up in the Musk v. Altman evidence.
• The craziest part of Musk v. Altman happened while the jury was out of the room
• Jury is being dismissed early so YGR can deal with an objection to Birchall’s testimony.
• Birchall is actually very funny outside of court? Good for him.
• We are now hearing about the pause in quarterly donations.
• We’re back.
• Second break of the day.
• Birchall cross.
• Elon Musk confirms xAI used OpenAI’s models to train Grok
• Birchall has just been asked about the four Teslas.
• Birchall testifies about Musk’s contributions to OpenAI.
• A woman in the gallery has lowered a sleep mask over her eyes and is attempting to sleep.
• Musk steps down. He may be recalled.
• We are on re-cross. Musk is getting testy again.
• The Microsoft investment comes back up.
• And we’re back.
• We’re in break — and I just checked out something interesting.
• Elon Musk’s robot army definitely will not kill you.
• Musk insists he wasn’t kneecapping OpenAI.
• Musk seems notably more subdued today.
• “At least change the name,” Musk says he told Altman.
• Elon Musk v. Capitalism.
• An “ongoing conversation” around open source.
• We’re still talking about whether Musk read the term sheet.
• The jurors have been seated.
• Musk has just entered the courtroom.
• “Issues of extinction are excluded.”
• Good morning!
• Elon Musk’s worst enemy in court is Elon Musk
• Freedom!
• Unfortunately we will not be talking about safety details of any specific product.
• The jury is leaving for the day. “I suspect it’s a nice day out there,” YGR says.
• MechaHitler might be a bad look for the AI safety defender.
• Musk’s broader AI safety commitment (or lack thereof) comes up.
• This is so testy.
• Did Musk even read the OpenAI term sheet?
• Musk asked Shivon Zilis to stay “close and friendly” with OpenAI to keep info flowing.
• Musk says xAI probably won’t be the first to get to AGI.
• We’re back from a break, talking about SpaceX and xAI.
• Don’t worry about Tesla’s robot army!
• “You mostly do unfair questions.”
• “It’s a free country.”
• “Will you answer my question?”
• Musk’s desire for control comes up again.
• “This is a hypothetical.”
• Did Musk initially envision OpenAI as a corporation?
• Musk is being combative on cross already.
• “I did say that I would commit up to a billion dollars, yes.”
• Is Tesla really not working on AGI?
• Musk is returning to the stand.
• At times, being a judge is much like being a kindergarten teacher.
• We’re on a break.
• “I mean, all due respect to Microsoft, do you really want Microsoft controlling digital superintelligence?”
• “What’s going on here this is a bait and switch.”
• A Musk-Altman spat about Microsoft.
• Musk really cannot help himself.
• “Capped profit” wasn’t an issue, even when Microsoft got involved.
• “Tesla is not pursuing AGI.”
• Musk is more on his game today.
• “After I received these reassurances that OpenAI would continue to be a nonprofit I continued to donate over $10 million.”
• “I actually was a fool who provided free funding for them to create a startup.”
• More discussion of who would own OpenAI.
• “I don’t lose my temper,” says Elon Musk.
• “2017 was a hard year, and we’ve made mistakes.”
• “I formed many for-profit tech companies, and could have done so with OAI,”
• “Crystal clear focus.”
• Sam Altman has just entered the room, right ahead of the jury.
• A member of the public just got dressed down by YGR about taking photos.
• Musk v. Altman et al. is back in session.
• In naming OpenAI, Elon Musk worried anything related to the Turing Test could mean bad PR.
• Elon Musk appeared more petty than prepared
• That’s a wrap!
• YGR scolds OpenAI for taking inconsistent positions on the origin of its name.
• Elon Musk tells the jury that all he wants to do is save humanity
• Arguments over ownership.
• Apparently OpenAI could have had an ICO.
• “I was not averse to a small for-profit,” Musk says.
• We’re reading emails between Musk and Jensen Huang.
• Musk says nonprofit was non-negotiable for OpenAI.
• We’re at the founding of OpenAI.
• Musk says he would have created something like OpenAI on his own.
• Musk recalls meeting Sam Altman.
• Sam Altman left during a break, but Elon Musk’s lawyer didn’t notice.
• “Here we are in 2026 and AI is scary smart.”
• “I have extreme concerns about AI,” says Musk.
• AI will be as smart as “any human as soon as next year.”
• Musk claims he has time for SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, and the Boring Company because he works a lot.
• Musk is telling the jury he (co)founded Tesla.
• Neuralink’s long-term goal is… AI?
• “There need to be things that people are excited about that make life worth living … Being out there among the stars can excite everyone.”
• A little Musk biography.
• Elon Musk, looking funereal in a black suit with a black tie, says “it’s not okay to steal a charity.”
• Elon Musk takes the stand in high-profile trial against OpenAI
• We are back from a break.
• Elon Musk will be the first witness in Musk v. Altman.
• “Microsoft unlocked with OpenAI a virtuous cycle.”
• Microsoft enters the chat.
• “We are here because Mr. Musk didn’t get his way at OpenAI.”
• “[Musk] demanded control, he demanded the ability to make all the decisions without regard to the other founders.”
• OpenAI lawyers argue that Elon was right in the middle of discussions about a for-profit pivot.
• “Musk was furious that OpenAI succeeded.”
• OpenAI: Musk’s lawsuit is a “pageant of hypocrisy.”
• Sam Altman’s “related party conflicted transactions” are how he made money on OpenAI, Molo says.
• Technical difficulties.
• OpenAI is like a museum store that has looted the Picassos and pocketed the profits.
• AGI might be out of fashion in the AI world, but it will be at the center of this trial.
• “The defendants in this case stole a charity.”
• Musk and Altman go to court
• Good morning from the Musk v. Altman line outside the courtroom.
• Jury selection in Musk v. Altman: ‘People don’t like him’
• We have a jury.
• Elon Musk’s lawyer tried to get some jurors thrown out for disliking Musk.
• Apparently things are exciting outside.
• We have gone through the first 20 potential jurors.
• Voir dire has begun.
• The Elon Musk vs. OpenAI trial starts today.
• Elon Musk drops fraud claims against OpenAI and Sam Altman before trial.
• Musk vs. Altman is here, and it’s going to get messy
• Elon Musk is about to be a very busy boy!
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