Elon Musk spent more than seven hours on the witness stand across three days in Oakland this week, framing his lawsuit against OpenAI as a defence of the American institution of charitable giving while OpenAI's legal team sought to portray him as a spurned co-founder motivated by competitive jealousy.
The trial, before US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers and a nine-person jury, centres on two remaining claims, unjust enrichment and breach of charitable trust, after Musk dropped 24 other counts, including all fraud allegations, hours before jury selection on Monday.
Musk opened his testimony by telling jurors that OpenAI exists because Google co-founder Larry Page once called him a "speciesist" for caring more about humans than a potentially sentient artificial intelligence.
"I said, 'What if AI wipes out all humans?' He said that would be fine so long as artificial intelligence survives," Musk testified.
"The reason OpenAI exists is because Larry Page called me a speciesist."
Musk said he conceived the idea for the organisation, chose the name, recruited key researchers including Ilya Sutskever from Google, and provided all of the initial funding.
"I was a fool who provided them free funding to create a startup," he told jurors.
"I gave them $38 million of essentially free funding, which they then used to create what would become an $800 billion company."
He described Microsoft's subsequent $10 billion investment as a "bait and switch," citing a text message exchange in which Altman replied "I agree this feels bad" before offering Musk the opportunity to buy OpenAI stock, which Musk said "frankly, it felt like a bribe."
Under cross-examination by OpenAI lead counsel William Savitt, Musk conceded that his own company xAI "partly" distils OpenAI's models, a technique where one AI system is trained on the outputs of another, an admission that drew audible reaction in the courtroom.
When asked why he used OpenAI's technology if he considered it dangerous, Musk said: "It is standard practice to use other AIs to validate your AI."
Savitt pressed Musk on his claim to be motivated by safety, presenting evidence that Musk had recruited OpenAI staff to his own companies.
An email shown to jurors read: "The OpenAI guys are gonna want to kill me. But it had to be done."
Musk defended the hiring as lawful: "I believe it's a free world."
Judge Gonzalez Rogers intervened at several points to limit testimony on AI existential risk after Musk's lawyer argued extinction should be discussed.
"It's ironic that your client, despite these risks, is creating a company that is in the exact same space," the judge told Musk's legal team.
She also observed that many people "don't want to put the future of humanity into Mr Musk's hands."
Altman was not present in the courtroom for the entirety of Musk's testimony, though Brockman attended throughout.
Testimony resumes next week with UC Berkeley computer scientist Stuart Russell and OpenAI president Greg Brockman expected to take the stand.
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The jury's verdict will be advisory, with the judge making the final determination on liability.
If she finds in Musk's favour, a remedies phase addressing up to $150 billion in damages is scheduled to begin on 18 May.
The recap
- Musk testified he was duped into funding OpenAI’s founding nonprofit.
- He said he gave $38 million to OpenAI’s founding nonprofit.
- UC Berkeley’s Stuart Russell is slated to testify next week.
