Musk in court against OpenAI, alleging top executives plundered his brainchild

(Central News Agency reporter Oakland, California, 28th, comprehensive foreign wire report) Global richest man Elon Musk today testified in a crucial hearing concerning OpenAI's future, describing his lawsuit against the developer of chatbot ChatGPT as an act of defending charitable donations.

Reuters reported that Musk sued OpenAI, its co-founder and CEO Sam Altman, and President Greg Brockman, alleging they betrayed him and the public, abandoning OpenAI's mission to be a guardian of artificial intelligence (AI) for the benefit of humanity, and transforming the non-profit organization into a profit-seeking giant.

Musk stated during his testimony on the first day of the hearing: "If we acquiesce to the plundering of charities, then the entire foundation of charitable giving in America will be destroyed. This is what concerns me."

Musk, who founded electric car giant Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, also described OpenAI as his brainchild.

Musk said: "I came up with this idea, I named it, I recruited key personnel, taught them everything I knew, and provided all the seed funding. Its original intention was to be a charity that did not seek profit for any individual. I could have founded it as a for-profit company, but I deliberately did not."

AFP reported that Musk also said he made initial contact with AI chip manufacturer Nvidia and tech giant Microsoft to seek crucial technology, opening up opportunities that were originally unavailable to the then-unknown co-founders of OpenAI.

Before Musk began his testimony, OpenAI and Altman's lawyer William Savitt told the jury in his opening statement that Musk saw business opportunities while helping to fund OpenAI's early growth and pushed for OpenAI to become a for-profit enterprise. He even suggested that Musk might eventually lead the company as CEO.

Savitt said that Musk wanted to "take control" and only filed the lawsuit after failing to do so. In 2023, he established his own AI business, xAI, which is now part of SpaceX.

Savitt stated in his opening remarks: "What he cares about is whether Musk himself can be in a leadership position. We are here today because Mr. Musk failed to achieve his desires."

OpenAI's lawyers also stated that OpenAI established a for-profit entity in March 2019, which was crucial for purchasing computing power and paying top scientists to remain competitive with Google's DeepMind artificial intelligence laboratory.

Musk's lawyer Steven Molo told the jury in his opening statement that the defendants of OpenAI were the ones truly greedy for money, as OpenAI began attracting investors, including Microsoft, which invested $10 billion in January 2023.

Molo said: "This is not a tool to make people rich."

Musk is suing OpenAI and one of its largest investors, Microsoft, for $150 billion (approximately NT$4.7685 trillion), with the proceeds to be donated to OpenAI's charitable division. Musk is expected to continue his testimony tomorrow.

He also hopes for OpenAI to revert to a non-profit organization, remove Altman and Brockman from their executive positions, and expel Altman from the board. Musk's accusations include breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment.

Although Musk described OpenAI as a charity, OpenAI described itself as a non-profit artificial intelligence research company in a 2015 article titled "Introducing OpenAI."

Before the jury was seated, Federal District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers warned Musk after OpenAI's legal team complained about Musk's post on social media platform X on the 27th, where he criticized Altman as "Scam Altman" and accused Altman of stealing from the charity.

Rogers said she was reluctant to issue a gag order but urged Musk to "try to curb your tendency to use social media to stir up things outside of court... even though you may never have done so before."

Musk agreed to reduce his social media activity, and Altman made a similar pledge. Altman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella are also expected to testify. (Translator: Chang Hsiao-Wen) 1150429

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