By Deepa Seetharaman, Jonathan Stempel and Juby Babu
OAKLAND, California, May 14 (Reuters) – A lawyer for Elon Musk hammered at the credibility of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Thursday, near the end of a trial over whether to hold the ChatGPT maker and its leaders responsible for allegedly transforming the nonprofit into a vehicle to enrich themselves.
OpenAI’s lawyers fought back, claiming the world’s richest person waited too long to claim OpenAI breached its founding agreement to build safe artificial intelligence to benefit humanity, and couldn’t claim he was essential to its success.
“Mr. Musk may have the Midas touch in some areas, but not in AI,” said William Savitt, a lawyer for OpenAI. “To succeed in AI, as it turns out, all Mr. Musk can do is come to court.”
The claims were made during closing arguments of a trial in the Oakland, California, federal court.
Musk is suing OpenAI and Altman for breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment.
He accused them of manipulating him into giving $38 million as well as going behind his back by attaching a for-profit business to its original nonprofit and accepting tens of billions of dollars from Microsoft and other investors to grow.
Musk is seeking about $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, which would be paid to OpenAI’s nonprofit. He also wants Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman removed from their roles.
MUSK LAWYER FAULTS ‘ARROGANCE’
In his closing argument, Musk’s lawyer Steven Molo told jurors that five witnesses, including Musk, former OpenAI board members and former OpenAI Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever, testified that Altman was a liar.
Molo also noted that during cross-examination on Tuesday, Altman did not say yes unequivocally when asked if he was completely trustworthy and did not mislead people in business.
“Sam Altman’s credibility is directly at issue in this case,” Molo said. “If you don’t believe him, they cannot win.”
Molo accused OpenAI of wrongfully trying to enrich investors and insiders at the nonprofit’s expense, and failing to prioritize AI’s safety.
He also challenged Brockman’s goals for the business, citing Brockman’s statement that his own OpenAI stake was worth nearly $30 billion.
“The arrogance, the lack of sensitivity, the failure to account for just common decency is really, really abhorrent.”
Musk also accused Microsoft, which invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019 and $10 billion in 2023, of aiding and abetting OpenAI’s wrongful conduct.
“Microsoft was aware of what OpenAI was doing every step of the way,” Molo said.
OPENAI SAYS MUSK WANTED CONTROL, HAD ‘SELECTIVE AMNESIA’
Sarah Eddy, another lawyer for the OpenAI defendants, accused Musk and his legal team in her closing argument of resorting to “sound bites and irrelevant false accusations.”
Eddy said by 2017, everyone associated with OpenAI – including Musk, then still on its board – knew it needed more money to fulfill its mission than it could raise as a nonprofit.
“Mr. Musk wanted to turn OpenAI into a for-profit company that he could control,” she said. “But the other founders refused to turn the keys of AGI (artificial general intelligence) over to one person, let alone Elon Musk.”
She also said if Musk truly believed AI should serve humanity, he would not have pushed to fold OpenAI into his electric car company Tesla or made his rival xAI a for-profit company.
Musk had a three-year statute of limitations to sue, and OpenAI’s lawyers said his August 2024 lawsuit came too late because he knew several years earlier about OpenAI’s growth plans.
Eddy expressed disbelief that Musk claimed he did not read a four-page term sheet in 2018 discussing OpenAI’s plan to seek outside investments.
“One of the most sophisticated businessmen in the history of the world” wouldn’t have “stuck his head in the sand,” Eddy said. Savitt accused Musk of having “selective amnesia.”
Microsoft’s lawyer Russell Cohen said in his closing statement that Microsoft wasn’t involved in the key events of the case, and was “a responsible partner at every step.”
Altman and Brockman were in court for closing arguments. Musk is accompanying U.S. President Donald Trump in China.
PUBLIC CONCERNED ABOUT AI
The trial comes amid public concerns over AI as it penetrates society.
People use AI for myriad purposes such as facial recognition, financial advice, journalism, medical diagnoses, and harmful deepfakes.
Many people express distrust of the technology and worry it could displace people from their jobs.
The nine-person jury is expected to deliberate on Monday.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers and lawyers in the case will return to court that day to discuss how OpenAI should be restructured and what damages should be paid if Musk wins. There will be no remedies if Musk loses.
OpenAI competes with AI companies such as Anthropic and xAI, and is preparing for a possible initial public offering that could value the business at $1 trillion.
Microsoft has spent more than $100 billion on its partnership with OpenAI, a Microsoft executive testified.
Musk’s xAI is now part of his space and rocket company SpaceX, which is also preparing a potential blockbuster IPO.
(Reporting by Kenrick Cai and Deepa Seetharaman in Oakland, California, Jonathan Stempel in New York and Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Rod Nickel)
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