Elon Musk said he was a “fool” to back OpenAI when it was a nonprofit and clashed with an attorney for Sam Altman, as he testified in a court battle that has pitted titans of the AI industry against each other.
“I was a fool who provided them free funding to create a startup,” Musk said on the witness stand Wednesday. “I gave them $38 million of essentially free funding to create what would become an $800 billion company.”
Musk has accused Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman of manipulating him into donating tens of millions of dollars to help launch the AI lab as a nonprofit seeking to benefit humanity, only to turn it into a for-profit company. “It’s not OK to steal a charity,” Musk said during his testimony on Tuesday.
OpenAI said that Musk was aware of the for-profit conversion and even supported it. But when the OpenAI founders refused to give him unilateral control of the venture, Musk launched a competitor and is only now suing OpenAI to slow it down.
William Savitt, attorney for Altman and OpenAI, opened the cross-examination Wednesday by correcting Musk when he testified earlier in the day that Tesla wasn’t pursuing artificial-general intelligence. A tweet written by Musk in March flashed on screen: “Tesla will be one of the companies to make AGI and probably the first to make it in humanoid/atom-shaping form.”
Musk’s plans for Tesla are relevant in the case because at one point, Musk suggested to OpenAI founders that the AI lab could be folded into Tesla, according to email correspondence submitted as evidence in the federal trial in Oakland, Calif.
Early into the cross-examination, Musk expressed frustration at Savitt’s questions about potential tax breaks he might have received as a result of his donations to OpenAI and his role in helping start the company. “Your questions are not simple,” he said. “They’re designed to trick me essentially.”
Savitt sought to highlight Musk’s initial commitment to donate $1 billion to OpenAI. “Did you contribute anywhere near to $1 billion to the organization?” Savitt asked. “I contributed my reputation,” said Musk. “These things all have value.”
Altman and Brockman appeared in court Wednesday, with each taking notes during Musk’s testimony. At times, Brockman showed his notes to Altman, while Altman nodded.
Musk started the day by reiterating his issues with OpenAI’s for-profit conversion to his lead attorney, Steven Molo. “What you can’t do is have your cake and eat it too,” he said, adding that OpenAI couldn’t have the “moral high ground” associated with nonprofit organizations when its real motivation as a company was “profit maximization.”
Molo asked Musk whether xAI, the AI company he launched in 2023, is a competitor to OpenAI. “It is, at this point, technically competitive but much smaller than OpenAI,” Musk said.
Musk wants the court to remove Altman and Brockman from their leadership roles at OpenAI and unwind the AI lab’s recent conversion to a for-profit entity. He also has sought damages of more than $180 billion, which would be paid from the AI lab’s for-profit venture to its nonprofit parent.
News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, has a content-licensing partnership with OpenAI.
Write to Angel Au-Yeung at angel.au-yeung@wsj.com
