Lockdown begins in Elon Musk’s famous lawsuit against OpenAI | Stories about Elon Musk

Elon Musk criticizes OpenAI for violating the integrity of charity and putting profits ahead of AI’s safety and non-profit values.

Lawyers a OpenAI and Elon Musk began to close the debate on an important test that could affect the future of the developer ChatGPT.

On Thursday, each side presented a final statement to the jury, who will decide whether OpenAI and its leaders benefited from what was supposed to be a “philanthropic” operation.

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The lawsuit was brought by Musk, the world’s richest man and the founder of rival Artificial Intelligence (AI) prototype, Grok.

Musk sued OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altman and its president Greg Brockman, saying that the company had moved away from the work it had started in creating AI that was safe and beneficial to people.

Musk was not present for Thursday’s final speech, as he is in China on a diplomatic visit with United States President Donald Trump.

His lawyer, Steven Molo, used his last words to say OpenAI has breached its integrity by enriching investors and insiders of a non-profit. He also wanted to paint Altman as unreliable.

“I looked at Sam Altman saying that five witnesses in this case, all people he knew for years and worked with him, called him a liar under oath. Liar is a very powerful word in court,” said Molo.

The five people Molo mentioned were Musk; Ilya Sutskever, former chief scientist of OpenAI; former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati; and former board members Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley. Musk invested $38m in OpenAI’s early years.

“Sam Altman’s credibility is at stake in this case,” Molo said.

The lawsuit also accuses Microsoft, which invested $1bn in OpenAI in 2019 and another $10bn in 2023, for aiding and abetting OpenAI’s wrongful practices.

“Microsoft knew what OpenAI was doing at every step,” Molo said.

OpenAI’s lawyers pushed back, saying Musk waited too long to claim the company had breached its founding agreement. One of the security team, Sarah Eddy, said that it was Musk who was unreliable.

“Mr. Musk is the one whose testimony contradicts every other witness and all the records,” Eddy said.

Eddy added that, by 2017, everyone associated with OpenAI – including Musk, who is still on its board – knew that they needed more money to carry out their work than they could raise as a non-profit.

He added that Musk himself hopes to profit from the company.

“Mr. Musk wants to turn OpenAI into a profitable company that he can control,” he said. “But other founders refused to hand over the keys to AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) to one person, let alone Elon Musk.”

The question of whether the case was filed within the statute of limitations may be a critical issue.

In court filings last month, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers wrote that “if the jury finds that Musk failed to deliver on his actions within the limits, it is possible” to “accept the findings and correct the defendants”.

If the jury decides that the case is timely filed, it will have to determine whether OpenAI had a “good faith belief” and whether the company and its management breached that faith.

The lawsuit comes as OpenAI moves into the first phase of what is expected to be the largest program ever.