OAKLAND, Calif. \u2014 Elon Musk said he was a \u201cfool\u201d to trust Sam Altman with the future of OpenAI in his second day of testimony in the bombshell trial over the future of the artificial intelligence giant.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a fool who provided them free funding to create a startup,\u201d Musk told a packed federal courtroom in Oakland, Calif,. on Wednesday. \u201cI gave them $38 million of essentially free funding to create what would become an $800 billion company.\u201d<\/p>\n
Musk \u2014 who had leveled accusations from the stand a day earlier that Altman had broken a promise to build OpenAI as a charitable organization \u2014 sparred with OpenAI\u2019s lawyer William Savitt during his cross examination on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
OpenAI attorney William Savitt, AP<\/p>\n
When he learned the news that OpenAI had raised $10 billion from Microsoft in 2023, Musk said it finally became clear to him that OpenAI had lost its way.\u00a0He ripped Altman over what he called \u201cdisingenuous\u201d reassurances that OpenAI would remain a nonprofit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI texted Sam Altman, \u2018What the hell is going on? This is a bait and switch,\u2019\u201d Musk said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Musk later went on to tell the courtoom that his view of OpenAI has gone through three different phases, with the first being \u201cEnthusiastic support\u201d for OpenAI and it\u2019s mission, followed by \u201cGrowing skepticism\u201d and finally \u201cThey\u2019re looting a nonprofit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are currently in phase 3,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n
Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman were seen in the court room throughout Wednesday\u2019s testimony, listening intently and occasionally passing notes.<\/p>\n
Savitt, meanwhile, attempted to pin down Musk about his early involvement with OpenAI \u2014 making a case that he supported plans to establish and grow OpenAI\u2019s for-profit entity. In response, Musk hit back at the attorney\u2019s yes-or-no line of questioning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Elon Musk sparred with OpenAI attorney William Savitt on Wednesday in court. REUTERS<\/p>\n
\u201cThe classic reason you can\u2019t ask yes or no questions \u2013 Have you stopped beating your wife?\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n
US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is presiding over the trial, jumped in, saying, \u201cNo, we\u2019re not going to go there\u201d \u2014 eliciting titters from the courtroom.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Savitt also grilled Musk on a\u00a0text exchange<\/a>\u00a0between Musk and then-board member Shivon Zilis just before Musk quit OpenAI\u2019s board in 2018. Zilis, who has borne several of Musk\u2019s children, asked him whether she should stay \u201cclose and friendly\u201d with OpenAI to \u201ckeep info flowing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cClose and friendly,\u201d Musk replied, according to court documents. \u201cBut we are going to actively try to move three or four people from OpenAl to Tesla.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Confronted about the back-and-forth with Zilis, Musk deadpanned: \u201cWell. I did want to know what was going on in OpenAI.\u201d<\/p>\n Elon Musk in an Oakland federal court. AP<\/p>\n Slavitt hammered Musk on what he said were vague responses about discussions during OpenAI\u2019s early years about creating for profit wing. \u201cYou don\u2019t remember whether you were open to OpenAI having a for-profit venture in the summer of 2017,\u201d Savitt said.<\/p>\n Rogers said to Musk: \u201cIt\u2019s a yes or no question.\u201d<\/p>\n Musk: \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s a yes or no question.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tCharlie Gasparino has his finger on the pulse of where business, politics and finance meet\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up to receive On The Money by Charlie Gasparino in your inbox every Thursday.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n A visibly flustered Musk ultimately said that yes, he did have a recollection of having discussions about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Savitt also displayed an email where Musk invited people to a party in a \u201chaunted mansion\u201d that Musk had recently bought in or around San Francisco.\u00a0 \u201cOpenAI should start moving toward a for profit immediately,\u201d a party attendee said Musk said at the party in a small meeting about OpenAI\u2019s future.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s all calm down,\u201d Rogers said, urging Musk to address Savitt\u2019s questions directly and for Savitt to keep the cross-examination moving forward. <\/p>\n Federal court in Oakland, Calif. United States District Court Northern District of California<\/p>\n Earlier in the day, Musk returned to the witness stand knocking his fellow co-founders including Altman for wanting the do-gooder image of running a charity while building a for-profit entity worth many billions of dollars.<\/p>\n \u201cThey can\u2019t have their cake and eat it too<\/a>,\u201d Musk said. \u201cThey can\u2019t have the positive halo effect of a charity and enrich themselves greatly.\u201d<\/p>\n Musk has accused OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman of duping him into thinking he was donating tens of millions of dollars toward launching a nonprofit to develop AI safely and for the benefit of humanity, only to turn it into a for-profit enterprise.<\/p>\n