In a trial featuring a clash between Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, neither of the tech titans has emerged as an overly sympathetic character. But nobody has more to lose than Altman, who is expected to take the stand this week to defend himself. <\/p>\n
Already, testimony about Altman’s turbulent tenure at the ChatGPT maker has become prime fodder for internet jokes. One piece of evidence that has inspired countless memes was a text exchange between Altman and a company officer, Mira Murati, in 2023 during his short-lived ouster as CEO, when Altman asked if things were moving \u201cdirectionally good or bad\u201d and she wrote back: “Sam this is very bad.\u201d <\/p>\n
Musk, the world’s richest man, is seeking Altman’s second ouster from the company leadership as part of a civil lawsuit accusing him of betraying their shared vision for OpenAI. Since its start as a nonprofit funded primarily by Musk, Open AI has evolved into a capitalistic venture now valued at $852 billion. <\/p>\n
Even if Musk loses, the trial has invited further scrutiny of Altman\u2019s leadership at a pivotal time for the company and its competition with Musk\u2019s own AI firm and another rival, Anthropic, formed by a group of seven ex-OpenAI leaders. All three firms are moving toward planned initial public offerings that are expected to be some of the largest ever. <\/p>\n
A jury that\u2019s already heard about Altman\u2019s character from a parade of his former allies and adversaries will ultimately decide the verdict. But the repercussions could reverberate widely. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not looking good for any of them and I think that that\u2019s a little bit unfortunate for the AI industry at a time when the public perception of AI is quite negative and seems to be getting worse,\u201d said Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University\u2019s Tech Policy Institute. <\/p>\n
Musk warned Altman would be one of America’s \u2018most hated\u2019 men <\/strong><\/p>\n The lawsuit accuses Altman and his top lieutenant, Greg Brockman, of double-crossing Musk by straying from the San Francisco company\u2019s founding mission to be an altruistic steward of a revolutionary technology. The lawsuit alleges they shifted into a moneymaking mode behind his back. <\/p>\n Shortly before the trial began, Musk abandoned a bid for damages for himself and instead is seeking an unspecified amount of money to be paid to fund the altruistic efforts of OpenAI\u2019s charitable arm. In a text exchange with Brockman proposing a possible settlement, Musk warned that Brockman and Altman \u201cwill be the most hated men in America\u201d as a result of the trial. <\/p>\n While Musk, the head of SpaceX, Tesla and a slew of other companies, was well known by the San Francisco Bay Area jury pool, fewer knew who Altman was before the start of the trial, even if they were familiar with ChatGPT. <\/p>\n As the trial has played out in a federal courtroom in Oakland, California over the last two weeks, jurors have heard from witnesses including OpenAI ex-board members Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley, who spoke about the decision to fire Altman in 2023 before they were themselves ousted from the board of directors when Altman returned to his role. <\/p>\n In video testimony last week, Toner said a starting point for the decision to oust Altman was when OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, a respected AI scientist, reached out to confide some of his own concerns. <\/p>\n \u201cA phrase we used was \u2018a pattern of behavior,\u2019 so no one single cause,\u201d Toner said. \u201cThe pattern of behavior related to his honesty and candor, his resistance of board oversight.\u201d <\/p>\n Sutskever was instrumental in the unsuccessful attempt to oust Altman but later said he regretted his role in the shakeup. In his own testimony Monday, Sutskever confirmed that he wrote a 2023 memo to OpenAI\u2019s board that characterized Altman as pitting his executives against one another and exhibiting a \u201cconsistent pattern of lying\u201d that was causing a loss of trust and productivity. <\/p>\n Sutskever said Altman\u2019s behavior contributed to an environment that was \u201cnot conducive\u201d to the company’s goals, including its mission to safely build artificial general intelligence. He said he later backtracked and supported Altman\u2019s reinstatement because he was concerned about what would happen to a company he worked hard to create and \u201ccared very much about.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI felt that, had I not done this, the company would have been destroyed, and I felt that this was a Hail Mary,\u201d he testified. <\/p>\n OpenAI begins presenting its side <\/strong><\/p>\n The trial has carried risks also for Musk, who is pursuing an initial public offering this summer for his rocket ship maker, SpaceX, which could make him the world’s first trillionaire. Among the witnesses has been Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member who served as a conduit between Musk and OpenAI’s leaders and also didn’t disclose that Musk was the father of her two young twins, according to trial testimony. <\/p>\n Not until midday Monday, on the third week of the trial, did OpenAI begin calling its own witnesses, starting with Bret Taylor, the current chair of OpenAI\u2019s board who painted a more positive portrait of Altman\u2019s leadership. <\/p>\n \u201cI think Sam has done a great job as CEO,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cHe\u2019s been forthright with me and the other board members.\u201d <\/p>\n Syracuse University professor Shubha Ghosh, an expert in business and technology law, said regardless of the outcome of the case, he has doubts about Altman staying on as CEO of OpenAI in the long run. <\/p>\n \u201cA lot this of might depend upon a testimony,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t know what he\u2019s going to say or how he\u2019s gonna say it. But even like the best case, movie theater type performance, with all the music playing and whatnot, I don\u2019t see him coming off as a fairly strong leader, especially (since) this case has gone this far.” <\/p>\n