Musk, OpenAI lawyers begin closing arguments in landmark trial that could shape AI’s future

OAKLAND, Calif. — Attorneys for Elon Musk and OpenAI started closing arguments Thursday within the landmark trial whose end result may form the way forward for synthetic intelligence.

Musk, the world’s richest man, was a co-founder of OpenAI, which began as a nonprofit in 2015 and went on to create ChatGPT. After Musk invested $38 million in its first years, his lawsuit filed in 2024 accused OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and his prime deputy of shifting right into a moneymaking mode behind his again.

The trial’s end result may sway the stability of energy in AI — breakthrough know-how that’s more and more feared as a menace to humanity’s survival. Scrutiny of Altman’s management comes at an important time for the corporate and its rivals, Musk’s personal AI agency and Anthropic, shaped by a bunch of seven ex-OpenAI leaders.

All three corporations are transferring towards deliberate preliminary public choices which are anticipated to be among the many largest ever. Along with damages, Musk is in search of Altman’s ouster from OpenAI’s board. If Musk wins, it may derail OpenAI’s IPO plans.

One of many jury’s duties is to resolve if Musk filed his lawsuit in time. A lot of the testimony has centered on OpenAI’s early years after its 2015 founding, however there’s a comparatively quick timeline to allege the claims Musk is making of breach of charitable belief and unjust enrichment.

OpenAI has argued that Musk waited too lengthy and can’t declare harms that occurred earlier than August 2021.

The decide wrote in a court docket submitting final month that “if the jury finds that Musk did not file his motion throughout the statute of limitations, it’s extremely probably” that she’s going to “settle for that discovering and direct verdict to the defendants.”

If the jury decides that the lawsuit was filed in time, they then need to resolve if OpenAI had a “charitable belief” and that OpenAI and its executives broke that belief. Musk’s different declare means jurors should decide whether or not Altman, Greg Brockman — co-founder and president — and OpenAI unjustly enriched themselves at Musk’s expense.

For Microsoft, a co-defendant within the trial, the jury has to resolve whether or not the corporate aided and abetted that breach.

Musk’s legal professional, Steven Molo, informed jurors Thursday morning that the Tesla CEO is “sorry he couldn’t be right here.”

Musk is in China with President Donald Trump and different distinguished tech executives.

Molo started making his case doubling down on claims of Altman’s untrustworthiness, pointing to testimony from 5 witnesses who referred to as the OpenAI CEO a “liar.”

“I confronted Sam Altman with the truth that 5 witnesses on this trial, all people who he’s identified for years and labored with, referred to as him a liar beneath oath. Liar’s a really highly effective phrase in a courtroom.”

These 5 folks had been Musk and one other co-founder Ilya Sutskever, who was OpenAI’s chief scientist, in addition to OpenAI’s former chief know-how officer Mira Murati and two ex-board members, Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley.

“Sam Altman’s credibility is immediately at difficulty on this case. He’s the defendants’ principal witness. The defendants completely want you to consider Sam Altman. When you can’t belief him, if you happen to don’t consider him, they can not win. It’s that easy,” he stated.

As a result of Musk, Altman and Brockman by no means signed an precise contract that would present that they had a charitable belief that OpenAI then broke, Musk’s facet has made the case that jurors ought to think about emails and different communication between them — together with all the things from OpenAI’s web site to press interviews — that constituted such a belief.

“The proof proves Elon donated these funds for a selected charitable function,” he stated, including that this function was to create a nonprofit for the event of protected AI that might be open-source when relevant.

In a terse alternate whereas jurors had been out of the room, U.S. District Choose Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers sharply criticized Musk’s legal professional for suggesting to jurors in his closing arguments that Musk wasn’t in search of any cash within the lawsuit.

Whereas Musk, earlier than the trial, deserted a bid for damages for himself, he’s nonetheless in search of an unspecified sum of money to be paid to fund the altruistic efforts of OpenAI’s charitable arm.

Musk is in search of “billions of {dollars} of disgorgement,” the decide stated, ordering Molo to both retract his assertion or “drop your declare for billions of {dollars}.” They later agreed that the decide would right the assertion to jurors.

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O’Brien reported from Windfall, Rhode Island.