Musk Warned OpenAI Founders They’d Be “Most Hated Men in America” Before Trial Began

TLDR

• Elon Musk testified for nearly three days claiming he was misled into donating $38 million to OpenAI before it became for-profit
• Musk is seeking removal of Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, plus up to $180 billion in damages
• Brockman’s private journal entry from 2017 suggests founders discussed going for-profit early on
• Musk tried to settle two days before trial, warning Altman and Brockman would be “most hated men in America”
• Musk admitted xAI partly distilled other AI companies’ models, including potentially OpenAI’s

The Musk vs. OpenAI trial is now in its second week, with more key witnesses expected to take the stand in Oakland, California.

OpenAI President Greg Brockman is set to testify Monday. He follows Musk, who spent nearly three days on the stand last week.

Musk says he donated $38 million to OpenAI believing it would stay a nonprofit. He claims Altman and Brockman misled him while secretly planning to convert the company to a for-profit structure.

Musk is asking the court for three things: removal of Altman and Brockman from their roles, damages of up to $180 billion, and a reversal of OpenAI’s corporate conversion.

Brockman’s Journal Under the Spotlight

Brockman said in a recorded deposition that the entry referred to building a revenue plan to support OpenAI’s mission, not personal gain.

The trial also revealed that in 2017, Musk instructed his associate Jared Birchall to file incorporation papers for a for-profit version of OpenAI. Musk said it was done “just in case” and was never used.

Musk Ranks AI Companies, Admits to Distillation

During testimony, Musk ranked the top AI companies unprompted. He placed Anthropic first, OpenAI second, Google third, Chinese open-source models fourth, and his own xAI fifth.

He also acknowledged that xAI had “partly” distilled other AI companies’ models, a process where one AI learns by querying another at large scale.

Other witnesses expected later in the trial include Sam Altman, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, and co-founder Ilya Sutskever.

The trial began April 28 before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers and is expected to last several weeks, with a verdict possible by mid-May.

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