Musk v. Altman Trial Closing Arguments Full of Gossip
Closing arguments took place today in the Musk v. Altman trial. Elon Musk's attorney, Steven Molo, struggled during his delivery. He mixed up names, calling co-defendant Greg Brockman "Greg Altman" at one point. Molo also wrongly stated that Musk sought no financial remedy, prompting a correction from the judge. He accused many witnesses of lying over recent weeks but provided scant support for Musk's core legal arguments.
OpenAI's counsel, Sarah Eddy, responded by organizing the company's evidence timeline neatly. She avoided claims of universal trustworthiness among participants. Still, she landed the sharpest line, noting about Musk, "Even the mother of his children can't back his story." William Savitt followed up, pointing out Musk's repeated "didn't recall" responses to key facts. Savitt questioned how a seasoned executive could overlook a simple four-page term sheet from OpenAI.
Key Gossip Nuggets from the Trial
The trial's true draw lay in its revelations, more juicy details than legal substance. Early on, evidence showed Musk leveraged OpenAI to boost xAI. This came out in the first week. Grok developed rapidly, raising doubts about full independence. Musk confirmed xAI distilled models from others, including OpenAI's. Investors funded what, exactly?
Musk twice failed to achieve AGI through Tesla. First, he tried buying OpenAI without success. Then, he aimed to undermine it by poaching staff, including Sam Altman, for a top AI lab. That effort flopped too.
Sam Altman verified old reports of considering a California governor run.
Demis Hassabis drew fixation, particularly from Musk.
Musk insisted he never loses his cool. Yet, during cross-examination by Savitt, he did just that.
Mira Murati navigated the Altman board removal mess. She shared chats aiding his ouster, then relayed board moves to him, criticized the episode publicly, and hid her involvement from staff. This paints her poorly. Critics targeted Altman as untrustworthy, but Murati fares no better.
Altman said Musk hoped his children would take over OpenAI.
Altman chose Savitt, who previously bested Musk on Twitter and likely will in court.
Altman stayed sharp under oath, downplaying Musk's OpenAI role, accusing him of "front-runner-itis," and hinting at lost respect. His style irked precisely.
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Greg Brockman and OpenAI engineers moonlighted at Tesla on self-driving tech, despite OpenAI employment.
Shivon Zilis withheld from board colleagues that Musk fathered her children until Business Insider exposed documents. She kept it from her father too.
One note read, "Rumor has it that, on top of the folks that secretly converse on Twitter DM because they don't trust Demis not to spy on their email and gchat…"
Another: "I don't want to be IBM and OpenAI to be Microsoft."
Jurors missed the jackass trophy, a donkey rear like a little league award. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers chuckled at it.
Musk's AI Track Record Questioned
The trial sought to penalize Altman and may have succeeded. The main lesson points to Musk's AI shortcomings. He predicted OpenAI's failure often. He worked to sabotage it, poach talent, and once got Andrej Karpathy, an OpenAI founding member, to Tesla.
xAI burns cash, now tied to SpaceX. It loses researchers. A major data center goes to Anthropic, not xAI. It eyes Cursor purchase to rival Anthropic and OpenAI coding tools. Enterprise clients, from government to firms, face pressure to adopt it. Grok functions via distilled rivals' models.
In 2018, Zilis noted Brockman and Sutskever viewed Musk as underprepared on AI and AGI, worrying them about collaboration. They proved correct. With SpaceX's IPO nearing, do investors see or mind?
OpenAI started in 2015 as a nonprofit by Musk, Altman, Brockman, and others to pursue AGI safely. Tensions grew as it shifted for-profit in 2019, prompting Musk's exit and suit alleging betrayal of open-source nonprofit mission. The trial aired these grievances publicly.
xAI, Musk's 2023 launch, competes directly, raising billions but facing talent and output scrutiny. Tesla pursues full self-driving with AI, yet lags benchmarks.