Elon Musk testified in federal court, accusing OpenAI of abandoning its nonprofit mission and becoming a profit-driven company. Musk, a co-founder, claimed he was misled and demanded OpenAI revert to a nonprofit, while OpenAI's lawyers challenged his credibility, citing emails where he questioned the nonprofit model.
Musk, who helped co-found OpenAI in 2015 with Sam Altman and other Silicon Valley figures, has called for it to be forced to revert to a pure nonprofit.
— AFP: Elon Musk faced fiery questioning Wednesday in his court showdown with OpenAI, as he insisted that the maker of ChatGPT had fooled him by turning what was an altruistic pursuit into a profit-making juggernaut. His second day of testimony in federal court in Oakland, California grew testy at times, as OpenAI's lawyers sought to portray the Tesla tycoon as an unreliable narrator of the company's history.
He also is seeking the ouster of Altman and company president Greg Brockman.
"Your questions are not simple. They're designed to trick me essentially," Musk complained to OpenAI's lead attorney William Savitt.
"Mr Musk, you're a bright guy. I'm asking you questions that mostly have a yes or no answer," Savitt shot back. The cross-examination sought to dismantle the narrative Musk had built during questioning from his own attorney. In hours of testimony, Musk – who left the project in 2018 – insisted he was blindsided by OpenAI's transformation into a major tech company with a for-profit arm that has made it one of the most valuable private companies in history.
"I gave them US$38mil of essentially free funding which they then used to create an US$800bil for-profit company. I literally was a fool," Musk told the court Wednesday, before cross-examination began. At the heart of the case is his accusation that OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman betrayed the company's original nonprofit mission.
But on Wednesday, OpenAI's counsel used old emails to show that Musk himself, at various points, had questioned whether a nonprofit was the right model as he and the OpenAI leadership explored other corporate structures.
"No, as long as the for-profit is in service to the nonprofit, it is not breaking the promise. " On the stand Tuesday, Musk traced his motivation to help launch OpenAI to a deep distrust of Google, which he believed did not take AI safety seriously and could not be trusted to responsibly develop such powerful technology.
He told the court he backed the project on the understanding it would be a nonprofit that would put society's interests first, with any technology it developed released as open source, freely available to all. Since Musk's exit, OpenAI has become an AI superpower valued at US$852bil , buoyed by its ChatGPT chatbot, and is preparing for a high-profile IPO. Musk has since launched his own AI lab, xAI, which he merged into SpaceX in February.
The rocket company is valued at US$1.25 trillion , and its IPO – expected in June – could rank among the largest in history. Along with seeking to force OpenAI back to a nonprofit structure and oust Altman and Brockman, Musk has sought as much as US$134bil in damages – which he has pledged to redirect to the OpenAI nonprofit. – AFP
Elon Musk Openai AI Ethics Nonprofit Vs For-Profit Court Case
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