Who trusts Sam Altman?

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman testified in court against a lawsuit brought by co-founder Elon Musk, who alleges that the creation of OpenAI’s for-profit subsidiary amounted to misappropriating a charitable organisation built around safe AI development. Altman pushed back on that framing, arguing that OpenAI had built one of the world’s largest charitable foundations and that […]

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.

Who, me? | Image: The Verge; Getty Images After two weeks of hearing from assorted witnesses that he was a lying snake, the jury finally heard from the lying snake himself: Sam Altman. At the end of the testimony, his lawyer William Savitt asked him how it felt to be accused of stealing a charity. "We created, through a ton of hard work, this extremely large charity, and I agree you can't steal it," Altman said. "Mr. Musk did try to kill it, I guess. Twice." Altman was fully in "nice kid from St. Louis" mode, and did a passable impression of a man who was bewildered at what was happening to him. When he stepped down from the stand holding a stack of evidence binders, he even look … Read the full story at The Verge.

Mr. Altman, the C.E.O. of OpenAI, said on Tuesday that he worried Elon Musk wanted control of the A.I. lab.

The OpenAI chief rejects claims he deceived Elon Musk as high-stakes AI trial nears its end Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email The OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, took the stand on Tuesday to defend himself and his company against a lawsuit by Elon Musk. Altman is set to be one of the final witnesses in the trial, which has pitted two of the tech industry’s most powerful men against each other in a dramatic courtroom showdown. Musk has accused Altman and OpenAI of breaking the AI firm’s founding agreement by restructuring it into a for-profit enterprise, alleging that Altman essentially swindled him into co-founding the company and providing tens of millions in financial backing. Musk also claims Altman unjustly enriched himself in the process and is seeking the CEO’s removal from OpenAI, the redistribution of $134bn to the firm’s non-profit and the undoing of its for-profit conversion. Continue reading...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says Elon Musk did "huge damage" to the culture of the AI startup. During testimony as part of Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI, Altman said Musk required OpenAI president Greg Brockman and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever to rank researchers by their accomplishments and "take a chainsaw through a bunch." Altman conceded that this was the management style the Tesla CEO was known for, but that it was incompatible with his startup. "I don't think Mr. Musk understood how to run a good research lab," Altman testified when his lawyer, William Savitt, asked about the impact of Musk's departure from OpenAI on morale. "For a … Read the full story at The Verge.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has begun his testimony against Elon Musk in a high-profile jury trial in a California federal courtroom. Altman, alongside OpenAI president Greg Brockman, is a primary defendant in the trial brought by Musk. Altman, Brockman, and Musk were all part of the initial founding team at OpenAI, with Musk investing up to $38 million in the ChatGPT-maker's early days. But the relationship between Musk and other OpenAI founders eventually soured, and Musk stepped away from the company, later going on to found his own direct competitor, xAI. In recent years, Musk and Altman have traded barbs and made a slew of allegations agains … Read the full story at The Verge.

The former OpenAI chief scientist may be estranged from the company, but he still came to its defense as he testified on Monday.