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OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 30: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman arrives to court at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building on April 30, 2026 in Oakland, California. Elon Musk invested in OpenAI early on believing it would be a non-profit, but is now suing OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman for allegedly deceiving him by developing OpenAI into a for-profit company. (Photo by Benjamin Fanjoy\/Getty Images) | Image Credits:Benjamin Fanjoy \/ Getty Images <\/p>\n
Lawyers for Elon Musk and OpenAI made their closing arguments this week, and now it\u2019s up to jurors to decide whether OpenAI did anything wrong as it\u2019s transformed into a slightly-more-for-profit<\/a> organization.<\/p>\n But as Kirsten Korosec, Sean O\u2019Kane, and I noted on the latest episode of TechCrunch\u2019s Equity podcast<\/a>, a big theme in the trial\u2019s final days was whether OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is trustworthy<\/a> \u2014 for example, Musk\u2019s attorney Steve Molo grilled Altman about whether statements he\u2019d made during congressional testimony were truthful.<\/p>\n Kirsten noted that Musk has made plenty of misleading statements of his own<\/a>, and that trust isn\u2019t just an issue for Altman.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a fundamental question [for] a lot of tech journalists, policymakers, and more and more consumers, about all the AI labs,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s really come down to trust, because we don\u2019t have the insight, necessarily \u2014 these are all privately held companies, there\u2019s a lot behind the veil still.\u201d<\/p>\n Keep reading for a preview of our conversation, edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n Anthony Ha: [The end of the trial] led to this really provocative headline from one of our writers, Tim Fernholz, [that] just says, \u201cWho trusts Sam Altman?\u201d<\/a> Does anyone want to take a stab at answering this?<\/p>\n Kirsten Korosec: Yeah, Anthony, I\u2019m going to throw it right back to you. Do you trust Sam Altman?<\/p>\n Anthony: It\u2019s an interesting question because it feels like something that\u2019s kind of a wild question to discuss in a journalistic context, but actually that\u2019s the core of the trial, in a lot of ways.<\/p>\n Sean O\u2019Kane: That\u2019s not a yes.<\/p>\n Anthony: And it actually seems to be [at the] core of understanding so much of what\u2019s happened at OpenAI, especially this big executive power struggle that they now call The Blip.<\/p>\n It just seems like a lot of people who\u2019ve worked with Altman don\u2019t trust him<\/a>. And he\u2019s acknowledged this a little bit, because he\u2019ll talk about the fact that he recognizes he\u2019s been conflict averse<\/a>, telling people what they want to hear, and he\u2019s trying to work on that.<\/p>\n I mean, it sounds plausible, and I can understand how that can lead to misunderstandings in some situations. [But] I\u2019m also a very conflict-averse person and I\u2019d like to think that if any of this stuff went to trial, that people would not be asking, \u201cIs Anthony Ha trustworthy?\u201d<\/p>\n Sean: Still not a yes!<\/p>\n Kirsten: I think that people would say that you are trustworthy. I will say that question, while provocative, doesn\u2019t just encapsulate what this trial was about. I would zoom out even more and say this is a fundamental question [for] a lot of tech journalists, policymakers, and more and more consumers, about all the AI labs. It\u2019s really come down to trust, because we don\u2019t have the insight, necessarily \u2014 these are all privately held companies, there\u2019s a lot behind the veil still.<\/p>\n Maybe when they all IPO, we can get a peek, but it is fundamentally about trust and misuse, and do we believe the intent? And what I would throw back is, sometimes the intent can be worthy, noble, and still misused. It can still end up as a bit of a shit show. I think it\u2019s more than who trusts Sam Altman \u2014 although that was very interesting in this trial \u2014 but more of that bigger question that we can apply to the entire industry.<\/p>\n Sean: I\u2019ll say it: I don\u2019t trust him. But you know, I don\u2019t trust most people, so I guess that\u2019s just the baseline.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll see where this goes. The trial wraps up today. I\u2019ve been very curious to hear how the jury decides this all. I think at the start of this, a big motivator of this was Elon Musk trying to sling mud, at a perceived rival and someone who he feels slighted him. And I don\u2019t know if we know enough yet to say that that was completely accomplished, and whether or not he has a shot at winning. But I think all these people came out of this looking a little bit worse.<\/p>\n Anthony: And just to get specific, why this is coming up this week is that [Altman] was on the stand and he was basically getting grilled about some statements he\u2019s made in the past, in testimony to [Congress], basically saying he didn\u2019t have any equity in OpenAI. And that is not true because he had a stake through Y Combinator, which he used to run. And tried to brush that off by saying, \u201cI assume that everybody understands what it means to be a passive investor in a VC fund.\u201d And I think [Elon Musk\u2019s] lawyer, somewhat fairly, said \u201cReally? You think the congressman who was interviewing you knew that?\u201d<\/p>\n Kirsten: Yeah, I mean, he was playing the whole semantics game. What I thought was so interesting about [this] is the style of how Sam Altman answered questions [compared to] Elon Musk on the stand.<\/p>\n So Elon Musk, in many, many, many scenarios and many instances, we can point to the fact that he put something out on Twitter that was a lie or a bit of a fib, and on the stand corrected the record. So there\u2019s a history of, I would say, non-truthfulness-slash-lying, blatant or otherwise, in Elon Musk\u2019s world, but how he treated it was incredibly combative and very different than Altman who really took this [attitude of], \u201cI\u2019m working on it,\u201d and tried to seem sort of affable and I don\u2019t know if it\u2019ll work for him.<\/p>\n Because it really comes down to the core facts, and hopefully that\u2019s what the jury pays attention to. But I thought that that was really interesting \u2014 both being untruthful, but how they dealt with it was very different.<\/p>\n Loading the player…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 30: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman arrives to court at the Ronald V. 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