The initial witness in the trial between Musk and Altman is Elon Musk himself.
Elon Musk began his testimony in the trial against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and company president Greg Brockman. All three were part of OpenAI’s founding team, with Musk initially investing up to $38 million. However, their relationships deteriorated over company disagreements, including whether OpenAI should be integrated into Musk’s Tesla. Musk eventually left and later founded xAI, which competes with OpenAI and is now owned by Musk’s SpaceX.
In recent years, Musk has filed multiple lawsuits against OpenAI, many of which were dropped or dismissed. This particular lawsuit names Altman, Brockman, Microsoft, and OpenAI as defendants. It has reached jury trial in a California federal courtroom and is expected to include testimonies from AI industry leaders such as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott, and former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, now the founder of Thinking Machines Lab.
The lawsuit claims OpenAI violated its mission to develop AGI for the benefit of all humanity, and it also accuses the defendants of fraud, unjust enrichment, and breaching OpenAI’s charitable trust. Musk seeks to remove Altman and Brockman from their positions and revoke the financial benefits they gained from OpenAI’s operations, as well as undo OpenAI’s for-profit restructuring, among other demands.