Elon Musk accuses lawyer of trying to trick him in high-stakes trial

Elon Musk arrives at the US District Court in Oakland, California, on Tuesday. Picture: Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP

Elon Musk on Wednesday accused a lawyer for Sam Altman of trying to trick him during a tense cross-examination at a high-stakes trial over Musk's lawsuit alleging ​OpenAI ditched its mission to build artificial intelligence for the public good.

William Savitt, a lawyer for OpenAI, told Musk his questions about the tax benefits Musk reaped by donating $38m to OpenAI were simple, and that Musk's responses should be as well.

"Your questions are not simple. They're designed to trick me," Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, told a nine-person jury in federal court in Oakland, California.

The heated exchange came after Musk, over two days of questioning by his own lawyer, accused OpenAI, its co-founder and chief executive Altman, and its president Greg Brockman of wooing his donations by promising to build a nonprofit to develop AI responsibly, before pivoting to create a ​for-profit entity in 2019 to enrich themselves.

OpenAI has argued that Musk, who helped finance the company's early growth, is driven by a compulsion to control it and bitterness over its success after ​he left the board in 2018. It has said he is seeking to bolster his own AI company, SpaceX unit xAI, which lags OpenAI in user adoption.

The ⁠company also contends that Musk pushed OpenAI to become a for-profit business, one he might eventually lead as CEO, and that safety was not a priority for him when he was with the company.

Brainstorming 'not a deal'

Savitt asked ​Musk about an email he sent Altman in 2015 suggesting OpenAI be structured as a for-profit corporation with a parallel nonprofit, part of an effort to show Musk was supportive of a for-profit entity. Musk said ​the emails did not indicate his definitive position.

"Discussions and brainstorming are not a deal," said Musk, wearing a dark suit over a white shirt and glancing at the jury occasionally as he spoke.

Seated in the courtroom audience, Altman and Brockman — who took notes with a red-ink pen on a yellow legal pad — listened intently as the exchanges between Musk and Savitt grew increasingly heated.

Musk repeatedly asked Savitt to stop interrupting him, and after Musk answered one of Savitt's questions by saying, "You tell ​me," Savitt said, "I get to ask the questions, Mr. Musk."

The trial highlights the depth of the rupture between Musk and Altman. The two Silicon Valley icons once partnered in the quest ​to develop the fast-growing AI technology, a pillar of growth in the US economy that has also generated concerns about job losses and whether humans can maintain full control over models as they improve.

The pair co-founded OpenAI in 2015 to ‌create a benevolent ⁠steward of the technology and fend off rivals such as Alphabet's Google. Musk testified he left OpenAI in 2018 to focus on Tesla and SpaceX.

Microsoft, also a defendant, invested $10bn in OpenAI in 2023, a deal Musk said fuelled his concerns that OpenAI was abandoning its mission.

Jurors saw text messages Musk and Altman exchanged after news broke of Microsoft's potential investment. Musk told Altman the move felt like a "bait and switch". Altman responded, "I agree this feels bad," and then offered to allow Musk to buy a stake in OpenAI.

"Frankly, it felt like a bribe," Musk testified.

Musk a 'fool'

 Earlier on Wednesday, jurors saw an email Musk sent ​to Altman and Brockman in 2017, referring to himself ​as a "fool" for providing them funding for what ⁠he believed was a nonprofit venture.

"I felt like they had not been honest with me," Musk said under questioning by his lawyer, Steven Molo. "What they really wanted to do was create a for-profit where they had as much shareholder ownership as possible."

OpenAI has said it created a for-profit entity to allow it to accept ​private investments to help buy computing power and pay top scientists.

On cross-examination, Savitt highlighted instances in which Altman appeared to keep Musk apprised of OpenAI's ​plans to create a for-profit ⁠entity and pursue investment from Microsoft.

Savitt asked Musk if he had responded to an April 3, 2019, text message Altman sent him asking, "Do you have a few mins to talk about the Microsoft/openai investment?" Musk said he did not recall if he responded.

OpenAI is preparing for a potential initial public offering that could value it at $1 trillion. The company also faces growing competition from rivals, including Anthropic, while OpenAI has reportedly missed some internal performance targets.

Musk is seeking $150bn in ​damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, with any award going to OpenAI's charitable arm. He also wants OpenAI to revert to a nonprofit, with Altman and Brockman removed as officers and Altman removed from the board.

His claims include breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment.

OpenAI is ​currently structured as a public benefit corporation, in which the nonprofit and other investors, including Microsoft, hold stakes.

Reuters