The jury is set to deliberate in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the company’s for-profit conversion.
Essentially, according to CBC News, Musk is accusing Altman of “stealing” a “charity” and calling for his ouster from the company’s leadership.
Closing arguments in the trial wrapped up last week in Oakland, Calif., and the jury will begin deliberations on Monday. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will make the final decision in the case alleging that OpenAI breached its founding agreement when it became a for-profit company.
Musk is seeking US$150 billion (approximately C$206 billion) in damages to be paid to OpenAI’s non-profit arm.
To add some context to the whole situation, OpenAI was founded as a non-profit back in 2015 by Musk, Altman, and others (and it once tried to merge with Tesla), and has evolved into a for-profit venture that is set to go public with a valuation of US$1 trillion (approx C$1.3 trillion).
Musk is aiming to turn OpenAI back into a non-profit and also remove its president, Greg Brockman, who has a major stake (US$30 billion, or C$41.2 billion) in the company. Musk has accused OpenAI of manipulating him into giving the company US$38 million (approx. C$52.2 million), while also accepting tens of billions of dollars from major investors like Microsoft.
In an email thread from February 2023, Musk is quoted as saying that “the fate of civilization is at stake” in response to Altman calling out Musk for publicly attacking the AI giant.
Now, to the surprise of absolutely no one, Musk’s intentions have been called into question, as his AI company, xAI, is also considering a public offering as part of SpaceX, which could be seen as a motive to take down a major competitor.
CBC notes that a decision is expected to come down early this week, possibly by Tuesday afternoon.
Source: CBC
