After three weeks, the high-profile trial over Elon Musk’s lawsuit against the co-founders of OpenAI is coming to a close – Copyright AFP JOSH EDELSON<\/p>\n
After three weeks of intense hearings, Silicon Valley\u2019s first major AI trial \u2014 over the lawsuit filed by Elon Musk against the co-founders of OpenAI \u2014 is nearing an end. It is expected to go to the jury on Monday.<\/p>\n
Here are four scenes that defined the trial:<\/p>\n
Musk blames his own naivety<\/p>\n
At the opening of the trial on April 28, Musk portrayed himself as a selfless benefactor and Good Samaritan concerned with protecting humanity from an AI that, if left in the wrong hands, could \u201ckill us all.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI came up with the idea, the name, recruited the key people, taught them everything I know, provided all of the initial funding,\u201d the SpaceX CEO said regarding OpenAI\u2019s founding in 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cI gave $38 million essentially for nothing, which they used to build a company worth $800 billion. I was literally an idiot,\u201d he said, blaming his own naivety.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Musk was visibly annoyed during the trial as he called out OpenAI\u2019s lawyer for asking questions \u201cdesigned to trap me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Musk, you are a brilliant man,\u201d said OpenAI\u2019s lawyer William Savitt, as he doubled down on his attacks, disguised with a show of courtesy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Altman strikes back<\/p>\n
Swapping his usual T-shirt, jeans and sneakers for a dark suit and tie, OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman sat stone-faced in the front row of the Oakland courtroom for most of the proceedings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But on May 12, it was finally his turn. Musk\u2019s lawyer, Steven Molo, was waiting for him, asking if he had always told the truth.<\/p>\n
Altman responded: \u201cI\u2019m sure there have been times in my life when I didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
But then, with a blank expression and wide eyes, he struck back, saying Musk in 2017 had demanded \u201c90 percent of the equity\u201d and \u201crefused to commit in writing\u201d to sharing power.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Altman said he had no choice as \u201cwe did not think that artificial general intelligence should be under the control of a single person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brockman\u2019s notebook<\/p>\n
Every day in the courtroom, Greg Brockman, the president and co-founder of OpenAI, took extensive notes on yellow notepads.<\/p>\n
During his questioning on May 4, old journals he kept from years ago took center stage, with Musk\u2019s lawyer highlighting some of the most embarrassing excerpts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brockman wanted to make money, writing, \u201cfinancially, what will take me to $1B?\u201d He also wanted \u201cto convert to a b-corp without him (Musk),\u201d a reference to a private company with social and environmental standards.<\/p>\n
The journal recorded his concerns about a plan to \u201csteal the non-profit from him (Musk)\u201d as \u201cpretty morally bankrupt.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing in there I\u2019m ashamed of,\u201d Brockman hit back, claiming that the journal did not include details of an outburst from Musk in 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really thought he was going to hit me,\u201d Brockman said of the incident. Musk did not touch him, but took a painting of a Tesla, a gift from one of the co-founders, down from the wall and left the room, he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Brockman\u2019s shares in the company are now worth $30 billion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The secret go-between<\/p>\n
Shivon Zilis \u2014 the mother of four of Musk\u2019s children \u2014 is a woman in the shadows, rarely appearing in public.<\/p>\n
So her May 6 appearance in the courtroom attracted intense curiosity.<\/p>\n
Zilis, who was appointed to the OpenAI board from 2020 to 2023, was asked about her awkward role as both Musk\u2019s colleague at Neuralink and Altman\u2019s friend.<\/p>\n
At the time, her mysterious relationship with Musk was secret. Their children were conceived through in vitro fertilization.\u00a0<\/p>\n
OpenAI accuses her of working as a mole for Musk.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zilis responded to questions briefly and, at times, sarcastically.<\/p>\n
\u201cRelationship is a relative term,\u201d she said when asked about her relationship with Musk, before conceding, \u201cthere have been romantic moments.\u201d<\/p>\n
But ultimately, her testimony may matter less than the content of her messages to Musk and Altman.<\/p>\n
Those could lead the jury to conclude that Musk, having been sufficiently informed by Zilis, knew of OpenAI\u2019s direction long before 2023. If so, his lawsuit could be thrown out before the jury even starts deliberating the merits of the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After three weeks, the high-profile trial over Elon Musk’s lawsuit against the co-founders of OpenAI is coming to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[24,155,157,781,12737,156],"class_list":["post-41978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-openai","tag-ai","tag-featured","tag-openai","tag-tech","tag-trial","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41978","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=41978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}