The nine-person jury was seated on Monday in the high-stakeslegal battlebetween longtime friends turned rivalsElon MuskandSam Altmanat a federal courthouse in Oakland, California.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is overseeing the proceedings between the world's richest person and the CEO ofOpenAI. Opening arguments are scheduled to begin on Tuesday, and CNBC will be in the courtroom.
Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015,suedthe company, Altman and Greg Brockman, OpenAI's president, in 2024, alleging they reneged on their commitments to keep theartificial intelligencelab a nonprofit and follow its charitable mission. OpenAI has repeatedly dismissed Musk's lawsuit as"baseless."Musk left OpenAI's board in 2018, and five years later startedxAIas a rival, merging that company with SpaceX earlier this year.
Musk has sought a number of different remedies over the course of the case,including the removalof Altman and Brockman from their roles at OpenAI. Musk's lawyers said in January that he should receiveup to $134 billionin "wrongful gains," though he has since asked to funnel those funds back into the OpenAI charity.
Gonzalez Rogers opted todivide the trial into two parts: a liability phase to decide if any wrongdoing occurred, and a remedies phase to determine the appropriate damages and next steps. The jury will weigh in during the liability phase only, and its verdict will be advisory, which means Gonzalez Rogers will make the final decision in both sections of the trial.
The liability phase of the trial is expected to wrap up by May 21, Gonzalez Rogers said Monday.
Gonzalez Rogers started the proceedings by welcoming the prospective jurors to the courtroom. She cracked some jokes as she explained the case laid out the trial's schedule.
Lawyers grilled prospective jurors on their views on AI, Musk and Altman. Some confessed to holding negative views of Musk due to his political ideology.
"The reality is people don't like him," Gonzales Rogers said at one point. She expressed confidence that the jurors selected will respect the judicial process and the facts of the case.
Altman and Brockman were in the courtroom on Monday.
Source: Drudge Report
