Musk Cites Meetings With Obama and Larry Page in OpenAI Trial

Elon Musk dropped some massive names on Tuesday as he sought to persuade an Oakland federal jury that he’s severe about AI security.

He advised the nine-person jury that he had a one-on-one assembly with former President Barack Obama in 2015. As a substitute of asking for favors for his firm, he “spent an hour” warning Obama concerning the risks of AI, which he mentioned “nobody was actually utilizing” on the time.

Musk additionally testified that Larry Web page known as him a “speciest” for being “pro-humanity” over AI in 2015, when Web page was Google’s CEO.

“I believed it was extraordinarily essential to have a counterbalance to Google,” Musk mentioned about cofounding OpenAI at a time when he already had many different ventures, corresponding to SpaceX and Tesla.

“Google didn’t appear to care about AI security at the moment,” he mentioned.

Musk was the primary witness in his civil trial towards OpenAI and Sam Altman — a high-stakes battle of the billionaires that might reshape the bogus intelligence panorama.

Throughout his roughly two hours of testimony, Musk mentioned he’ll all the time be “pro-humans” ought to people and AI come into battle. He additionally testified about his early profession, his lack of work-life stability, and his efforts to recruit AI researcher Ilya Sutskever from Google to work for OpenAI.

“Larry Web page refused to talk to me ever once more,” Musk mentioned.

Google and Web page’s household workplace didn’t instantly reply to requests for feedback.

Musk’s lawsuit towards OpenAI and CEO Altman seeks greater than $100 billion in damages, together with a request to unwind the for-profit structure of the $850 billion firm behind ChatGPT.

On the coronary heart of the case is Musk’s accusation that OpenAI’s founders, together with CEO Sam Altman, deserted their founding mission as a nonprofit devoted to creating AI for the general public’s profit, and never for personal acquire. The Tesla CEO claims that Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman deceived him into donating $38 million towards this mission after they cofounded the corporate collectively in 2015.

A courtroom loss can be a blow to charitable giving, he testified.

“It is going to grow to be precedent, and it’ll give license to looting each charity in America,” Musk mentioned.

The lawsuit, filed in 2024, says Altman and Brockman used his cash to create a “for-profit, market-paralyzing gorgon” that successfully turned OpenAI right into a “subsidiary of Microsoft.”

Final yr, OpenAI completed a major restructuring that shifted the corporate towards a extra standard for-profit construction, with Microsoft holding a roughly 27% possession stake within the for-profit entity, which stays below the management of the nonprofit arm.

Throughout Tuesday’s testimony, Musk in contrast AI to a really good baby, saying it may “blow up” and run uncontrolled with out somebody to “instill the best values” in it.

“That has been my long-standing concern about AI, which is what occurs when the pc will get a lot smarter than people?” Musk mentioned.

In an X put up on Monday forward of jury choice, OpenAI known as Musk’s lawsuit “a baseless and jealous bid to derail a competitor.”

The ChatGPT-maker maintains that OpenAI and Musk agreed in 2017 on the necessity for a for-profit shift, however says Musk “demanded full management” and walked when he did not get his means.

Over the roughly three-week trial, a nine-person jury will weigh Musk’s claims of breach of contract and unjust enrichment.

If the jury finds the defendants liable, the decide will decide how one can maintain them accountable. Musk has additionally requested the decide to strip Altman and Brockman of their management roles and order the return of “all ill-gotten features” from OpenAI’s for-profit operations.

Musk left OpenAI in 2018 and later launched his personal AI startup, xAI, in 2023. Musk’s SpaceX acquired xAI in February, and SpaceX is getting ready to go public as quickly as this yr in an IPO that might worth it at greater than $2 trillion.

OpenAI can also be reportedly eyeing an IPO this yr at a $1 trillion valuation.