Oakland (United States) (AFP) – OpenAI founder Sam Altman was expected to take the stand Tuesday in the blockbuster civil trial in California triggered by a lawsuit from the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, against the AI behemoth. Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, alleges that Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman misappropriated his $38 million donations when OpenAI abandoned its original nonprofit and philanthropic mission to become the for-profit giant behind ChatGPT. Musk is calling for OpenAI to revert to nonprofit status — a move that would impact its position in the global artificial intelligence race against Anthropic, Google, and China’s Deepseek.
OpenAI counters that Musk, who is now also an AI player with xAI, is motivated by petty revenge, having failed to seize majority control. The courtroom standoff in Oakland, outside San Francisco, features some of the wealthiest people on the planet, representing tech companies at the leading edge of the AI revolution. On Monday it was Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella who testified, saying he was “very proud” of his company’s profitable early investment in OpenAI. Nadella told the jury that Microsoft’s investment in the nonprofit arm, which now owns around a quarter of OpenAI Group PBC — the firm behind ChatGPT — helped to create “one of the largest, most well-funded nonprofits in the world.”
An advisory jury is expected to reach a verdict on any actual wrongdoing by the week of May 18. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will then make the final ruling on both liability and remedies after hearing the jury’s opinion. She has indicated she will likely follow their advice.
Musk has alleged that internal Microsoft documents show the computer behemoth already had its eye on profit when it invested in the OpenAI start-up, rather than seeking to nurture a supposedly philanthropic AI service. Microsoft’s initial $13 billion investment ballooned to be worth $92 billion four years later. But Nadella said Microsoft — whose OpenAI stake is now estimated to be worth $135 billion — simply made a good faith bet. “It has worked out well because we took the risk,” said Nadella. “If the pie became larger, obviously the nonprofit would benefit as well with their mission — and that’s what in fact it’s proven,” he said.
Musk’s lawyers suggested Microsoft was instrumental in OpenAI’s pivot toward being a commercial company, citing Nadella’s 2023 boast: “We have the people, we have the compute, we have the data, we have everything.” That year, when several members of OpenAI’s board ousted Altman, Nadella came to his support. After a five-day crisis, Altman was ultimately reinstated at OpenAI.
© 2024 AFP
