Elon Musk’s Testimony in the OpenAI Lawsuit
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, as well as the world’s richest person, spent over seven hours testifying for three days this week at a trial in Oakland, California. The case centers on the future of OpenAI, with Musk casting his lawsuit against the owner of ChatGPT as a defense of the institution of charitable giving.
Musk is also suing OpenAI’s Chief Executive Sam Altman and its President Greg Brockman, accusing them of betraying him and the public by abandoning the mission to be a benevolent steward of AI for humanity.
Musk Recasts OpenAI as a ‘Charity’
The word “charity” doesn’t appear once in the 2015 blog post announcing the formation of OpenAI as a nonprofit artificial intelligence research company. However, Musk repeatedly described OpenAI as a charity during his testimony, claiming that Altman and Brockman reneged on an initial promise to keep the nonprofit model.
“It was specifically meant to be for a charity that does not benefit any individual person. I could’ve started it as a for-profit and I specifically chose not to,” Musk testified.
Musk Says OpenAI Wouldn’t Exist Without Him
Building an AI research lab requires top-tier talent and considerable computing power. Musk claimed that OpenAI relied on his connections for both. He stated, “I came up with the idea, the name, recruited the key people, taught them everything I know, provided all of the initial funding.”
Musk mentioned that he recruited Ilya Sutskever, a top researcher, from Google while the company’s founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin repeatedly tried to entice him to stay. After recruiting Ilya to OpenAI, Musk said, “Larry Page refused to speak to me ever again.”
Regarding computing power, Musk claimed that OpenAI relied on his connections with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. “The only one who could actually call Satya Nadella and have him pick up was me,” Musk said. “The only reason he’s in this thing is because of me. Those are his words.”
Musk Spoke About AI Safety
Musk testified that he learned from discussions with Larry Page that the Google 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’s 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 nonprofit.”
‘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. When 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 wanted 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 that she thought “it’s ironic that your client, despite these risks, is creating a company that’s in the exact space.”
