{"id":23541,"date":"2026-04-30T20:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T20:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/23541\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T20:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T20:19:12","slug":"judge-in-openai-trial-keeps-elon-in-check","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/23541\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge in OpenAI trial keeps Elon in check"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>OAKLAND, Calif. \u2014 The judge running the bombshell trial over the future of OpenAI has apparently had it with Elon Musk\u2019s favorite line of the last three days \u2013 \u201cYou just can\u2019t steal from a charity\u201d \u2013 at one point reminding Musk that he was \u201cnot a lawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve heard that often,\u201d US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers told the tech titan, drawing some snickers from the packed courtroom. She struck the phrase from the record and told Musk to \u201cPlease try to respond to the specific questions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Musk has <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/28\/business\/musk-kicks-off-explosive-openai-trial-by-slamming-altman-company-for-abandoning-non-profit-mission-not-ok-to-steal-a-charity\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">repeatedly recited variations of the phrase<\/a> while being hammered by artificial-intelligence giant OpenAI\u2019s lawyer William Savitt during cross-examination, which continued into its second day on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>People protest on the day of jury selection in Musk\u2019s OpenAI lawsuit, in Oakland. REUTERS<\/p>\n<p>After Musk retook the stand, Savitt went straight to needling Musk on a term sheet document that laid out OpenAI\u2019s corporate founding that appeared to show the for-profit entity was well-documented. Musk\u2019s lawsuit alleges that OpenAI <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/28\/business\/elon-musk-slams-openai-rival-ahead-of-openai-trial-scam-altman\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">betrayed its altruistic mission<\/a> in pursuit of profit.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Musk acknowledged there was no written contract with OpenAI detailing the terms of his donation to the company to get OpenAI off the ground as a nonprofit research organization.<\/p>\n<p>Savitt <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/29\/business\/musk-and-openais-lawyer-share-testy-exchange\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">lambasted Musk\u2019s repeated claims<\/a> that he hadn\u2019t read the full term sheet document \u2013 before Musk fell back on his quip that stealing from a charity wasn\u2019t ok.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Later, Musk accused Savitt of not only asking a leading question but offering a leading answer to his leading question.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rogers interrupted. \u201cYou\u2019re not a lawyer, Mr. Musk,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, I\u2019ve technically taken lawyer 101,\u201d Musk joked smirking, eliciting some laughs from the courtroom including Altman\u2019s legal team.<\/p>\n<p>Musk then acknowledged \u201cI\u2019m not a lawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trial in Elon Musk\u2019s lawsuit over OpenAI for-profit conversion at a federal courthouse in Oakland. REUTERS<\/p>\n<p>Lawyers kicked off the day\u2019s proceedings squabbling over how much AI safety could be raised in front of the jury \u2013 again leading Rogers to step in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe all could die from artificial intelligence,\u201d Musk\u2019s attorney Steven Molo.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>OpenAI\u2019s lawyer started to butt in.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBoth of you stop,\u201d the judge said. \u201cWe don\u2019t need to have this whole thing explode in this courtroom in this way.\u201d This is not a trial of the safety risks of artificial intelligence. We are not going to get sidetracked on that issue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At one point, Musk referred to a worst case scenario where AI creates a \u201cterminator situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Musk\u2019s attorney Steven Molo asked Musk what he meant by a \u201cterminator situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Musk: \u201cWe\u2019ve all seen the movie,\u201d Musk deadpanned. \u201cIt\u2019s not a good situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lawyers enter the courthouse in Oakland.  REUTERS<\/p>\n<p>Musk also said xAI, in developing its own models, has \u201cpartly\u201d distilled some of OpenAI\u2019s technology by a process known as \u201cdistillation,\u201d which takes one AI tech and uses it to create another.<\/p>\n<p>Savitt asked Musk if xAI \u201cdistilled\u201d technology from OpenAI. OpenAI\u2019s terms of service doesn\u2019t allow distillation of the company\u2019s systems. AI giants like OpenAI and Anthropic have raised warnings that Chinese companies are distilling their technology.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGenerally AI companies distill other AI companies,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIs that a \u2018yes\u2019?\u201d Savitt asked. Musk answered, \u201cPartly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/28\/world-news\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-explosive-musk-vs-openai-trial\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Musk is seeking $180 billion<\/a> in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, pledging to donate any proceeds from a court victory to OpenAI\u2019s charitable arm. He is also asking the court to restore OpenAI\u2019s nonprofit status and remove Altman and Brockman from leadership roles.<\/p>\n<p>Musk in court yesterday said that he was a \u201cfool\u201d to trust Sam Altman with the future of OpenAI \u2013 \u201cI was a fool who provided them free funding to create a startup,\u201d Musk said. \u201cI gave them $38 million of essentially free funding to create what would become an $800 billion company.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND, Calif. \u2014 The judge running the bombshell trial over the future of OpenAI has apparently had it&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[309,1302,140,157,370,781],"class_list":{"0":"post-23541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-openai","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-elon-musk","11":"tag-openai","12":"tag-sam-altman","13":"tag-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}