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. Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member who shares four children with Musk, took the stand last week, and the courtroom also watched former OpenAI CTO Mura Murati’s videotaped deposition.

For the trial’s third week, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella appeared on Monday, followed by OpenAI cofounder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever. Altman took the stand on Tuesday to refute the Musk argument that he is a liar and a snake, while on the final day of testimony, Wednesday, we are hearing from Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott.

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 the 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 the 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:

• Musk left the country with President Trump despite a judge’s orders.
• Microsoft and OpenAI rest.
• In the most boring expert testimony yet, Louis Dudney, a forensic accountant, testified about how those funds were spent.
• The shade we are getting in here is incredible.
• The cross is focusing on Coates’ pay.
• John Coates, OpenAI’s expert witness, is running a demolition derby on Musk’s expert witness.
• Museum gift shop metaphor found dead in a ditch.
• We’re listening to an expert witness, David Hemel, a law professor at NYU.
• During Elon Musk’s all-hands Q&A before departing OpenAI, Achiam said he felt Musk wanted to “race towards AGI.”
• Achiam is running circles around this lawyer on cross, without doing the annoying things other witnesses have done.
• Okay, it’s time for the cross of Achiam.
• “I think he was just upset that he had been challenged,” Achiam said. “This was not friendly.”
• During the all-hands, Musk expressed concerns about what would happen if DeepMind got to AGI first,
• “It was a bit like seeing Bigfoot through Plexiglass,” Achiam says of seeing Elon Musk in the office.
• Ilya Sutskever would get up on tables to give speeches in the early days of OpenAI.
• Achiam talked about the roles of Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever in OpenAI’s early days.
• Josh Achiam described what it was like to work at OpenAI in 2017.
• Achiam started at OpenAI as an intern in the summer of 2017, and became a full-time employee in December.
• Hi my name is Josh Achiam and welcome to “will we see the jackass trophy?”
• Fairly stupid choice by Musk’s lawyers to go after Microsoft’s major decision rights.
• Musk cross. I guess we are now going to have a fight about due diligence.
• “Our due diligence found no conditions related to Elon Musk,” Wetter says.
• Mike Wetter for Microsoft is taking the stand now.
• Scott, who is wearing sneakers and a black crew neck under his blazer, seems quite pleasant on cross.
• We are now getting cross-examination from Musk’s lawyer.
• Microsoft’s CTO Kevin Scott is on the stand.
• Microsoft doesn’t want any of this
• In his testimony, Musk said he never called anyone a jackass.
• Incredible evidence dispute this morning.
• Sam Altman was winning on the stand, but it might not be enough
• About 200 people work on safety at OpenAI.
• The chair of OpenAI’s safety and security committee said they’ve formally delayed its model releases.
• Irritatingly, no one has asked him why he’s called “Zico.”
• Microsoft establishes that OpenAI has other investors…
• We see the Musk “bait and switch” texts again.
• What if we had a drinking game for this trial?
• Musk says, “This is a bait and switch” in a October 2022 text chain.
• Molo is not doing especially impressive lawyering here.
• Molo asked Altman if he’d ever fire himself as CEO of the OpenAI for-profit.
• “The blip” again.
• Well, I do love a long inquiry into the linear nature of time.
• The difference between Musk and Altman on cross is really stark.
• Ronan Farrow’s article is brought up.
• This cross is spicy!
• Mr. Molo is going directly in at Altman: “Do you always tell the truth?”
• “If I knew how difficult and painful this was going to be, I never would have tried,” Altman said.
• We are now talking about Altman’s investments.
• “I had poured the last years of my life, and I was watching it be destroyed,” Altman said.
• “I was in this like fog of war, I didn’t know what was going on,” Altman says of what happened next.
• We are now onto “the Blip.”
• Sam Altman says Elon Musk’s mind games were damaging OpenAI
• OpenAI has raised “approximately $175 billion” in investment, Altman says.
• Altman seems to be getting into his testimony…
• Musk didn’t invest in the OpenAI for-profit because “he was no longer going to invest in any startups he did not control.”
• It looks like Sam Altman discussed the for-profit OpenAI with Elon Musk in detail.
• “Unlike a lot of other meetings with Mr. Musk, this was a good vibes meeting.”
• Now into Shivon Zilis. Altman says he retained her on the board to try to keep friendly relations with Musk.
• “I was annoyed” when Elon Musk tried to recruit talent from OpenAI, Altman said.
• Musk resigned because he had lost confidence in OpenAI “and did not believe we were going to be successful.”
• Musk suspended his quarterly donations in 2017. That left OpenAI in “a very tough position.”
• When it was time to get more capital, Musk was pushing OpenAI to be acquired by Tesla.
• A particularly “hair-raising moment” for Altman was a succession plan from Musk.
• Elon Musk has control issues, Altman says.
• Sam Altman takes the stand in trial against Elon Musk
• OpenAI has called Sam Altman as a witness.
• Taylor says the reason OpenAI Foundation has been able to do more work is the recapitalization.
• Bret Taylor is back on the stand.
• We’ve talked about how this case isn’t just for whatever happens in the court…
• Bret Taylor has been asked to slow down twice.
• “OpenAI is decidedly not profitable,” Taylor said.
• There’s “a lot of tension” between LLMs and what Taylor calls “content companies”…
• Plantiff rests. OpenAI calls its first witness, Bret Taylor of OpenAI Foundation.
• Ilya Sutskever says he was uncomfortable with Musk’s large ownership demand.
• Sutskever’s testimony is kind of a snooze so far.
• Satya Nadella is excused.
• A lot of people contact Satya Nadella about their boards, apparently!
• Microsoft’s lawyer is now back with Nadella.
• We are discovering that Satya Nadella knows very little about the OpenAI nonprofit.
• I can’t speak for the jury but I am very, very sick of hearing about “the blip.”
• “Not consistently candid” press release about Sam Altman’s firing is what Molo is citing as why Nadella should have known why Altman was fired.
• We are arguing now about risk and return.
• “I don’t want to be IBM and OpenAI to be Microsoft.”
• We are on cross, with Steven Molo for Musk.
• Satya Nadella seemed to forget he currently served on the board of a nonprofit.
• What is Copilot?
• During Altman’s ouster, Satya Nadella tried to reassure investors everything would not “crumble.”
• “Below them, above them, around them.”
• “We have each other’s phone numbers,” Nadella says of Musk.
• Nadella tells us that before the OpenAI partnership, Google was its biggest AI competitor.
• Satya Nadella is taking the stand, in a navy suit and a light blue tie with a white shirt.
• Jury is here. We are now finishing a video deposition from Friday about the OAI deal with MSFT.
• 👑
• We are having an arugment about evidence.
• Musk v. Altman week two recap.
• Microsoft was worried OpenAI would run off to Amazon and ‘shit-talk’ Azure
• Mira Murati’s deposition pulled back the curtain on Sam Altman’s ouster
• Oh this tack is more effective. Then OpenAI lawyer is going after Columbia…
• This cross of Schizer is pretty weak.
• Basically everything Schizer is saying is couched as a hypothetical…
• We are now hearing from David Schizer, one of Musk’s expert witnesses.
• We are still listening to McCauley.
• Tasha McCauley is testifying now in a video deposition.
• “Do you have any idea how you ended up in this courtroom?”
• I am having a hard time taking Rosie Campbell seriously.
• We are now hearing from Rosie Campbell, a former OpenAI employee.
• OpenAI’s board discussed merging with Anthropic during “the Blip.”
• Helen Toner is now talking about the board’s decision-making process.
• YGR is back on the bench.
• Musk’s biggest loyalist became his biggest liability
• We are going through the removal of Sam Altman from OpenAI in detail.
• Toner is relating how Sam Altman’s firing happened.
• Toner says she found out about ChatGPT by seeing screenshots on Twitter.
• Making AI models is “more like alchemy than chemistry,” Toner says.
• We are now looking at Helen Toner’s deposition.
• Microsoft would like to be excluded from this narrative.
• “It’s not in my neurons,” Zilis says, instead of “I don’t remember.”
• Sarah Eddy, an attorney representing OpenAI, got sarcastic with Zilis.
• Shivon Zilis brainstormed possible scenarios for AI.
• Musk offered Sam Altman a board seat at Tesla…
• 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!
• ‘Sideshow’ concerns and billionaire dreams: What I learned from Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI
• Elon Musk’s xAI is suing OpenAI and Apple
• Inside Elon Musk’s messy breakup with OpenAI
• Elon Musk is suing OpenAI and Sam Altman again

The week leading up to Thanksgiving 2023 was the AI industry's biggest soap opera moment. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was abruptly ousted from his role at the ChatGPT maker. The explanation? That Altman was "not consistently candid in his communications with the board." Now, via witness testimony and trial exhibits in Musk v. Altman, the public is getting a concrete look behind the scenes of that dramatic weekend for the first time, much of it centered on former CTO Mira Murati.

It was a unique situation in that the roller coaster of a power play - which seemed to change every hour - took place, in many ways, publicly. The board's strikingly vagu …

Read the full story at The Verge.