Opening arguments are due Tuesday in a courtroom clash between billionaire Elon Musk and artificial intelligence startup OpenAI over whether the company betrayed its non‑profit mission.
The trial pits the world’s richest man against a lab he once backed and now competes with in the booming AI sector. Musk’s xAI chatbot Grok rivals OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
OpenAI co‑founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman “are confident in their position and look forward to the facts being known,” their attorney William Savitt said after jury selection Monday, reports AFP.
Musk’s suit accuses OpenAI of deceiving him about its altruistic mission when he invested millions in 2015. Court filings show Altman persuaded Musk to co‑found a non‑profit lab whose technology “would belong to the world.” OpenAI later created a commercial arm to fund costly data centers.
Musk, who has sought to force OpenAI back to a pure non‑profit and oust Altman and Brockman, renounced any personal damages claim, pledging to redirect any award to the foundation. He had initially sought up to $134 billion.
OpenAI counters that Musk’s departure stemmed from his demand for absolute control, not its governance shift. “His lawsuit remains nothing more than a harassment campaign driven by ego, jealousy and a desire to slow down a competitor,” the company said in a recent post.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will decide by late May, guided by an advisory jury, whether OpenAI broke promises or simply rode AI’s rise. Remedies remain at her discretion.
The case underscores a wider debate over whether artificial intelligence should serve society broadly or enrich a select few.
