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Testimony from Musk's partner, Zilis…Former OpenAI CTO also says "Altman fostered distrust and confusion"
Testimony has emerged that Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, who filed a lawsuit alleging OpenAI broke its non-profit promise and became a for-profit entity, had previously proposed incorporating OpenAI as a subsidiary of Tesla.
Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI director known as Musk's partner, testified to this effect on the 6th (local time) at a trial held at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Oakland Division, according to Reuters and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
Zilis testified, "At the time, a tremendous number of proposals regarding governance poured into OpenAI," and added, "Among them was Musk's suggestion that 'OpenAI become a subsidiary of Tesla.'"
It was also reported that the agenda of recruiting Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, as a director on Tesla's board was discussed during this process.
However, these proposals by Musk were rejected by CEO Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman, among others, and thus fell through.
Zilis, the former director, said that Musk was concerned that Tesla would compete with OpenAI for engineering talent right before he left the OpenAI board in 2018, adding, "Musk even recruited OpenAI's top AI researcher to Tesla just a few days before stepping down from the board."
This testimony appears to contradict CEO Musk's lawsuit logic that 'OpenAI broke its non-profit promise and became a for-profit entity, thus deceiving him.'
OpenAI, on its part, claims that CEO Musk desired a 'for-profit structure in which he would have control,' rather than a non-profit structure.
Former director Zilis also criticized the management style of Altman and Brockman, the two OpenAI executives.
She revealed that when OpenAI was discussing a contract with the nuclear fusion startup 'Helion,' the two individuals who held significant shares in the startup participated in the discussions until the end, despite being pointed out for conflicts of interest.
She also gave testimony that during the process of releasing ChatGPT, the board was not consulted at all, and therefore expressed extreme concerns at the time.
At the trial today, controversy also arose regarding Zilis, who appeared as a witness. OpenAI criticized former director Zilis for having four of Musk's children but not informing the board of this fact until it was reported by the media in 2022.
In addition, recorded testimony from Mira Murati, CEO of Thinking Machines Lab, who served as OpenAI's former Chief Technology Officer (CTO), was also screened in court today.
Murati criticized CEO Altman, saying, "He would say one thing to one person and the complete opposite to another," implying he fostered distrust among executives.
She recalled that when CEO Altman was temporarily removed from the board in 2023, "the company was at catastrophic risk of dissolution," and "I was worried the company would completely collapse."
In this lawsuit, CEO Musk is demanding the dismissal of CEO Altman and President Brockman, and that the two return any illicit gains obtained from OpenAI to the non-profit OpenAI board.
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