Elon Musk Had'Hair-Raising' Idea of Passing OpenAI Onto His Kids, Sam Altman Says Musk's lawyers questioned Altman over allegations of deception and his network of financial investments, but the OpenAI CEO painted a picture of Musk as obsessed with controlling the company. Sam Altman took to the witness stand to defend his reputation in the trial on Tuesday, as Elon Musk's lawyers peppered the OpenAI CEO with hours of questions regarding his alleged history of deceptive behavior . The cross examination was a much needed win for Musk, who has so far struggled to make a convincing case. Tuesday's testimony included several heated exchanges in which the OpenAI CEO had to respond to allegations from former colleagues suggesting he's untrustworthy . Highlighting this evidence is not only important for Musk winning over a jury, but also for beating OpenAI in the court of public opinion.

Showdown between Musk and Altman has rendered the world's most wealthy comical under egalitarian eye of court For the past couple of weeks, on the fourth floor of a courthouse on a quiet street in downtown Oakland, the world's richest man and one of the world's most valuable startups have been at war over the future of artificial intelligence. Being one of the reporters in the room has felt like watching an updated, opposite-coast version of Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities - ambition, ego, greed and the spectrum of social class on full display. The supporting cast has included Elon Musk fanboys, a stern judge and a who's-who of Silicon Valley's most influential people. All courtroom battles are theatre, but this one has proved to be a unique spectacle, with the judge chastising the lawyers for leading the witness, raising meritless objections and even too much coughing. With Musk on the stand, he griped that an opposing attorney had asked a leading question, to which the judge told him to "tell the jury you're not a lawyer".

Musk v. Altman week 2: OpenAI fires back, and Shivon Zilis reveals that Musk tried to poach Sam Altman OpenAI president Greg Brockman said Elon Musk wanted the company to create a for-profit entity--and endured a public peek into his diary. OpenAI president Greg Brockman, foreground, exits the U.S. District Court in Oakland, California. In the second week of the landmark trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI, Musk's motivations for bringing the suit were under scrutiny. Last week, Musk took the stand, alleging that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman had deceived him into donating $38 million to the company. He claimed that they'd promised to maintain it as a nonprofit dedicated to developing AI for the benefit of humanity, only to later accept billions of dollars of investment from Microsoft and restructure the company to operate a for-profit subsidiary. This week, Brockman fired back with his side of the story, arguing that Musk had actually pushed for OpenAI to create a for-profit arm and fought a bitter battle to have "absolute control" over it.

Apple has agreed to pay some iPhone buyers a collective $250m (£184m) to end a lawsuit accusing the company of misleading people about new artificial intelligence (AI) features and capabilities. In a settlement filed Tuesday in California federal court, Apple did not admit any wrongdoing, but agreed to a deal that will resolve claims in a large consolidated class action lawsuit filed last year. It accused Apple of false advertising around its AI features on the iPhone, which the company called Apple Intelligence, including an enhancement of its Siri voice assistant. Apple will pay between $25 and $95 to people who bought an iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 between June 2024 and March 2025. An Apple spokeswoman said the lawsuit was focused on the availability of two additional features in a lineup of many released as part of its Apple Intelligence rollout.

Readers respond to Sarah Stillman's piece about the detention of migrant children, Patrick Radden Keefe's investigation into car-insurance fraud in New Orleans, and Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz's profile of Sam Altman. Sarah Stillman, in her excellent article on the U.S. government's detention of migrant children, does what many media outlets find impossible: she stays with an ongoing horror even as the news cycles that placed it front and center have passed ("No Mercy," April 20th). Stillman's piece also reminded me that the United States is the only U.N. member state that refuses to ratify the organization's Convention on the Rights of the Child, which enshrines children with certain rights--including to stay with their families whenever possible and to due process. America's refusal dates back to the nineteen-nineties; considering this, the current Administration's actions can be seen only as a shameful continuation of our country's failure to respect human rights, even on its own soil. Stillman's piece details widespread medical neglect at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, in Dilley, Texas, and points out that one source for its population's medical problems is the town's water.

Musk v. Altman week 1: Elon Musk says he was duped, warns AI could kill us all, and admits that xAI distills OpenAI's models Musk kept his cool, and OpenAI's lawyer bulldozed him with piercing questions about his motivations for suing the company. In the first week of the landmark trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI, Musk took the stand in a crisp black suit and tie and argued that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman had deceived him into bankrolling the company. Along the way, he warned that AI could destroy us all and sat through revelations that he had poached OpenAI employees for his own companies. He even confessed, to some audible gasps in the courtroom, that his own AI company, xAI, which makes the chatbot Grok, uses OpenAI's models to train its own. The federal courthouse in Oakland, California, was packed with armies of lawyers carrying boxes of exhibits, journalists typing away at their laptops, and a handful of concerned OpenAI employees. Outside, protesters lined the streets, carrying signs urging people to quit ChatGPT, boycott Tesla, or both.

In this episode of “Uncanny Valley,” we get into how the Elon Musk-Sam Altman trial goes way beyond their rivalry and could have major implications both for OpenAI and also the AI industry at large.

Musk accuses OpenAI lawyer of trying to'trick' him in combative testimony In his second day on the stand, Elon Musk was at times combative under questioning by OpenAI's lawyer, whom he accused of asking overly complicated questions. Your questions are not simple, he told lawyer William Savitt at one point. They're designed to trick me essentially, Musk is suing fellow OpenAI co-founder Altman and the AI firm, alleging they misled him by shifting the organisation away from its non-profit roots toward a for-profit model. OpenAI says Musk is motivated by jealousy and regret for walking away from the company in 2018. It has also accused Musk, head of xAI, of trying to derail one of his key rivals.

Musk testifies at OpenAI trial it's not OK to'loot a charity' Elon Musk has taken the stand at a high-stakes trial over the future of OpenAI, casting his lawsuit against the ChatGPT maker as a defence of charitable giving. The world's richest person is suing OpenAI, its cofounder and chief executive officer, Sam Altman, and its president, Greg Brockman, and said on the stand on Tuesday that they betrayed him and the public by abandoning OpenAI's mission to be a benevolent steward of AI for humanity and transforming the nonprofit into a profit-seeking juggernaut. Musk, who founded carmaker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, also said he is committed to serving the public by working 80-to 100-hour weeks and generally not taking vacations. "I like working and solving problems that make people's lives better," he said. Before Musk began testifying, Bill Savitt, a lawyer for OpenAI and Altman, told jurors during his opening statement it was Musk who saw dollar signs as he helped finance OpenAI's early growth and pushed it to become a for-profit business, one he might eventually lead as CEO.

A trial pitting two founders of OpenAI - Sam Altman and Elon Musk - against each other has opened in California, with the sides presenting duelling narratives about the company's history and obligations to consumers. Musk, wearing a dark suit and tie, was asked by one of his lawyers what the lawsuit was about when he took the stand. It's actually very simple, he said. It's not okay to steal a charity... If it's okay to loot a charity, the entire foundation of charitable giving will be destroyed.