Elon Musk’s Last-Ditch Effort to Control OpenAI: Recruit Sam Altman to Tesla

A few months before Elon Musk left OpenAI’s board of directors in February 2018, he tried to recruit Sam Altman to join a “world-class AI lab” within Tesla. Musk went as far as offering the OpenAI CEO a Tesla board seat, according to emails and testimony presented in federal court on Wednesday during the Musk … Read more

‘I Actually Thought He Was Going to Hit Me,’ OpenAI’s Greg Brockman Says of Elon Musk

In August 2017, Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever gathered at Elon Musk’s self-described “haunted mansion,” a 47-acre, $23 million estate in Hillsborough, south of San Francisco, to discuss the future of OpenAI. Actor Amber Heard, Musk’s then-girlfriend, had served the group whiskey and then dashed off with a friend, Brockman, OpenAI’s cofounder and president, testified … Read more

Greg Brockman Defends $30B OpenAI Stake: ‘Blood, Sweat, and Tears’

two days ago the Musk v. Altman trial began, Elon Musk asked OpenAI cofounder and president Greg Brockman about reaching a settlement. When Brockman suggested both sides drop their claims, Musk responded, “By the end of this week, you and Sam [Altman] will be the most hated men in America. If you insist, so be … Read more

How Shivon Zilis Operated as Elon Musk’s OpenAI Insider

As the first week of trial in Musk v. altman comes to a close, one person has emerged as a critical behind-the-scenes manager of communications and egos in OpenAI’s early years: Shivon Zilis. A longtime employee of Musk and the mother to four of his children, Zilis first joined OpenAI as an advisor in 2016. … Read more

How Elon Musk Squeezed OpenAI: They ‘Are Gonna Want to Kill Me’

Elon Musk returned to the witness stand on Wednesday to continue telling his side of the story in his legal battle against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman. Under cross-examination from OpenAI’s lawyers, Musk was pressed on all the ways he tried to squeeze the organization over a 2017 power struggle that he ultimately lost. … Read more

Elon Musk Testifies That He Started OpenAI to Prevent a ‘Terminator Outcome’

Elon Musk and Sam Altman appeared in a federal courtroom together for the first time on Tuesday as they fight over OpenAI’s decade-long evolution and what it means for the company’s future. The trial in Musk’s lawsuit against Altman could result in financial damages and, more significantly, governance changes at OpenAI that may complicate its … Read more

Some Musk v. Altman Jurors Don’t Like Elon Musk

A jury was selected on Monday during the first day of trial for Musk v. altman in a federal court in Oakland, California. Some of the jurors that were ultimately selected voiced concerns over Musk himself, as well as the AI ​​technology at the core of the case, but assured the court they would put … Read more

At ‘AI Coachella,’ Stanford Students Line Up to Learn From Silicon Valley Royalty

As thousands of influencers descended on southern California earlier this month for the annual Coachella Music Festival, a very Silicon Valley program dubbed “AI Coachella” was taking shape a few hundred miles north in Palo Alto. The class, CS 153, is one of Stanford’s buzziest offerings this semester, and like the music festival, it features … Read more

The Battle for OpenAI’s Soul

Elon Musk’s lawsuit against Sam Altman will head to trial this month in an Oakland, California, federal courtroom, where nine jurors will settle a years-long dispute between the cofounders of OpenAI over the group’s founding mission. While spats between Silicon Valley’s most influential billionaires are notable in their own rite, former OpenAI employees and nonprofits … Read more

The 70-Person AI Image Startup Taking on Silicon Valley’s Giants

Standing inside HumanX conference in San Francisco’s Moscone Center, it’s hard not to feel like you’re at the center of the AI ​​universe. Technology leaders swarm the building, and the headquarters of OpenAI and Anthropic are just down the block. But a 70-person startup headquartered 5,000 miles away in Germany’s Black Forest—a region famous for … Read more