The bitter feud between Elon Musk and OpenAI boss Sam Altman has raged for years, but has mostly played out online in the form of accusations, counter-accusations and jibes. But starting on Tuesday, the beef between the two tech billionaires will shift to a much higher-profile forum: a federal courtroom in California, where their row will be the focus of a month-long trial. Being considered is Musk's claim that Altman - with whom he founded OpenAI - has swindled him out of millions of dollars and reneged on the ChatGPT-maker's original non-profit mission. Musk and Altman themselves will be among those to testify in a case in which the future of AI could be at stake. And while one will presumably emerge the winner, it's plausible that neither will emerge from the saga unscathed.

A United States federal judge has said that parts of Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI to halt its conversion to a for-profit entity might go to trial, adding that the Tesla CEO will have to appear in court and testify. "Something is going to trial in this case," US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, said early in the court session on Tuesday. "[Elon Musk will] sit on the stand, present it to a jury, and a jury will decide who is right." Rogers was considering Musk's recent request for a preliminary injunction to block OpenAI's conversion before going to trial, the latest move in a grudge match between the world's richest person and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman that is playing out publicly in court. The last time Rogers provided a preliminary injunction was in Epic Games's case against Apple in May 2021.

OpenAI's plan to become a for-profit company could encourage the artificial intelligence startup to cut corners on safety, a whistleblower has said. William Saunders, a former research engineer at OpenAI, told the Guardian he was concerned by reports that the ChatGPT developer was preparing to change its corporate structure and would no longer be controlled by its non-profit board. Saunders, who flagged his concerns in testimony to the US Senate this month, said he was also concerned by reports that OpenAI's chief executive, Sam Altman, could hold a stake in the restructured business. "I'm most concerned about what this means for governance of safety decisions at OpenAI," he said. "If the non-profit board is no longer in control of these decisions and Sam Altman holds a significant equity stake, this creates more incentive to race and cut corners."

OpenAI has hit back at Elon Musk's lawsuit accusing it of betraying its altruistic roots, claiming the Tesla chief executive had in fact supported the artificial intelligence company's plans to create a for-profit unit. Executives at the ChatGPT maker released a blogpost containing what it claimed was historical email correspondence with Musk in which the entrepreneur suggested merging the San Francisco-based startup with Tesla and said it should attach to the electric carmaker "as its cash cow". The blog, authored by OpenAI executives including its chief executive, Sam Altman, claims that in 2017 "we and Elon decided the next step for the mission was to create a for-profit entity". Last week Musk filed a lawsuit accusing OpenAI, where he was a founding board member, of deviating from its foundational mission by forming a for-profit unit – and putting making money before its core aim of producing technology for the benefit of humanity. "We're sad that it's come to this with someone whom we've deeply admired – someone who inspired us to aim higher, then told us we would fail, started a competitor, and then sued us when we started making meaningful progress towards OpenAI's mission without him," said OpenAI.

Elon Musk, who sued OpenAI for violating its non-profit mission and chasing profits, allegedly wanted the organization to merge with Tesla when it was starting to plan its transition into a for-profit entity in order to accomplish its goals. Well, either that or get full control of the company, OpenAI said in a blog post. The organization responded to Musk's lawsuit by publishing old emails from 2015 to 2018 when he was still involved in its operations. When OpenAI introduced itself to the world back in 2015, it announced that it had 1 billion in funding. Apparently, Musk was the one who suggested that figure, even though OpenAI had raised less than 45 million from him and around 90 million from other donors.