Protesters hold cutouts of Elon Musk outside the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse as the Musk v. Altman trial begins in Oakland, California, Monday. AFP-Yonhap
OAKLAND, California — A trial that could help shape the future of artificial intelligence begins on Tuesday, with billionaires Elon Musk and Sam Altman at odds over the evolution of ChatGPT maker OpenAI from a nonprofit to a profit-seeking juggernaut worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Opening statements in Musk's civil lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman will take place in the Oakland, California, federal court, following the selection on Monday of nine jurors.
Musk claims that Altman and Greg Brockman, respectively OpenAI's chief executive and president, betrayed him and the public by abandoning the company's mission to be a benevolent steward of AI for the benefit of humanity, and turning it into a "wealth machine" for themselves and investors.
The world's richest person is seeking $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, one of its largest investors, with proceeds going to OpenAI’s charitable arm. He also wants OpenAI to revert to a nonprofit, with Altman and Brockman removed as officers and Altman removed from its board.
Both Musk and Altman arrived at the courthouse early Tuesday for opening statements.
Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX founder, has said he provided about $38 million of seed money to OpenAI for its original mission, only to see OpenAI create a for-profit entity in March 2019, a little over a year after he left its board.
OpenAI countered that Musk knew about and supported the transformation, and sued only after failing to become CEO, and starting his own AI company to stunt its growth.
Musk is no longer seeking damages for himself as he pursues breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment claims.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has said she wants jurors to begin deliberations on the defendants' liability by May 12.
Source: Korea Times News
