Elon Musk’s Lawyers Ask OpenAI’s President Why He Is Worth $30 Billion
The legal team implied in a federal trial that Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president and co-founder, was driven by greed rather than building safe A.I.
The legal team implied in a federal trial that Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president and co-founder, was driven by greed rather than building safe A.I.
Two days before the start of the blockbuster trial pitting Elon Musk against the artificial intelligence company OpenAI, Mr. Musk sent a text message to Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president and co-founder, asking if he was interested in settling the case.
When Mr. Brockman suggested that both sides drop their claims, Mr. Musk responded with a text attacking Mr. Brockman and Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive. “By the end of this week, you and Sam will be the most hated men in America. If you insist, so it will be,” he wrote, according to a document filed in the trial.
As the trial’s second week kicked off in an Oakland, Calif., federal courthouse on Monday, it was unclear if the public standing of Mr. Altman and Mr. Brockman had changed at all. But Mr. Brockman spent most of the day on the witness stand defending his credibility against suggestions that his A.I. work was driven by greed.
Steven Molo, Mr. Musk’s lead lawyer, showed evidence that while Mr. Brockman had never invested money in OpenAI, he now owned a stake worth about $30 billion.
“Do you believe that OpenAI has maintained the moral high ground by allowing you to have a stake with close to $30 billion?” Mr. Molo asked.
The question of OpenAI’s motivations for building A.I. is a centerpiece of Mr. Musk’s lawsuit against the company. He claims that Mr. Altman and others breached OpenAI’s founding agreement by putting commercial gain over its earlier promise to build safe A.I. for the sake of humanity.
