Elon Musk testifies AI could end humanity during OpenAI courtroom clash

Elon Musk told jurors on Tuesday that artificial intelligence can become deadly enough to wipe out humans, and that warning became the loudest part of his first testimony in the trial against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Elon said OpenAI was not built to chase giant funding rounds, serve big tech partners, or remove limits on profit. He told the court it was meant to keep powerful AI under a public-minded structure, away from companies that may put money before human safety.

The trial started after jury selection ended Monday. Lawyers for Elon and Sam gave opening statements Tuesday, then Elon took the stand. Both men were inside the courtroom at the start, but Sam left before Elon began testifying.

The case is expected to last four weeks. The witness list could include Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella, AI researchers, and current and former OpenAI board members. Elon is the CEO of xAI, Tesla (TSLA), and SpaceX. Sam runs OpenAI.

Elon tells the court that Sam broke the nonprofit plan behind OpenAI

Elon said, “I came up with the idea, name, recruited the key people, provided the funding. I could have started it as a for-profit, and I chose not to.”

Elon said the early talks with Sam centered on making OpenAI a charity. The plan, as he described it, was that extra money would stay inside the group as reserves. He said it would remain an independent 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. He also pointed to founding papers that said, “no person shall benefit from this charity.”

Then Elon pushed the point in blunt language. “If the verdict comes out that it’s OK to loot a charity, charitable giving in America will be destroyed,” he said. OpenAI’s legal team objected right after that.

OpenAI says Elon wanted control while Bill Savitt attacks his safety claims

Sam’s side says Elon did not deliver the $1 billion he had promised. His lawyers also say Elon walked away when Sam, Greg Brockman, and Ilya Sutskever would not let him control the company or fold it into Tesla (TSLA).

Their counterclaim says ChatGPT brought OpenAI global attention after its 2022 launch. The filing says, “ChatGPT drew a new spotlight onto OpenAI.” It also says, “Musk had nothing to do with it.”

OpenAI attorney Bill Savitt used his opening statement to hit Elon hard. Bill said Elon used the $1 billion pledge to pressure the founding team. He told jurors, “we’re here because Mr. Musk didn’t get his way at OpenAI.” Bill also said, “Musk never cared whether OpenAI was a not-for-profit. … He never cared about AI safety.” Then he added, “What he cared about was Elon Musk on top.”

Elon answered that the founders did talk about a business arm. But he said any profit was supposed to serve the nonprofit, not control it. His words were, “We discussed, brainstormed about different ways to fund the charity. We did talk about establishing a for-profit or Tesla providing the funding. As long as the tail didn’t wag the dog, essentially.”

Elon says OpenAI gained from his cash, ideas, recruiting, and network. He wants about $134 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft (MSFT), which is one of OpenAI’s top backers and a co-defendant in the case.

He also attacks OpenAI’s new structure. OpenAI completed its restructuring in October. Its for-profit arm is still controlled by a nonprofit foundation, but the company removed its profit cap. It later raised $122 billion in its latest funding round.

Elon’s lawsuit says that change “requires lying to donors, lying to members, lying to markets, lying to regulators, and lying to the public.”

Elon then compared badly controlled AI to Terminator and said the safer future should look closer to Star Trek. His point was that OpenAI started as a counterweight to profit-hungry tech giants, not as another company racing for money and control.

Elon also brought up a 2015 conversation with Google co-founder Larry Page, who apparently called him a “speciesist” because Elon put human survival above the rise of digital intelligence. Elon is set to return to the stand Wednesday.

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