Secuela del juicio de OpenAI: la furia de Musk, la transfusión de Tesla y los secretos de la reunión de "Casa embrujada"

Original｜Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author｜Wenser (@wenser 2010)

April 28, Elon Musk and a group of OpenAI executives appeared in federal court in Oakland, California. （See “Elon Musk vs Ultraman, the Biggest AI Case in History Begins”）

This man, bearing the title of the world’s richest person, participated in founding OpenAI, then, like Steve Jobs in his time, abruptly left. With the release of internal information about the court hearings on May 6 and 7, including opening statements and evidence, more lesser-known details involving the trillion-dollar valuation giants SpaceX and OpenAI have gradually come to light. Among them are Musk’s various tactics and the self-interest of OpenAI executives.

Odaily Planet Daily has compiled eight stories from publicly available information and court documents, providing readers with a behind-the-scenes look at this “biggest AI trial in history,” involving a settlement of up to 134 billion USD.

Insider One: Musk invested 38 million USD in startup capital, OpenAI executive Greg Brockman “earned” 30 billion USD in equity

In the second week of Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, co-founder and president Greg Brockman and his personal diaries from 2015 to 2023 appeared in California court as witnesses and evidence. Musk’s lawyer Steven Molo quickly uncovered a “small flaw”—compared to Musk’s real investment of 38 million USD supporting OpenAI’s founding and early development, Brockman claimed he had “not invested a penny” during OpenAI’s creation and growth. Yet, today, based on OpenAI’s latest funding round valuation of 825 billion USD, his personal equity stake is worth about 30 billion USD.

Brockman’s diaries also reveal his “wealth ambitions”—notably mentioning:

• “Financially, what will take me to $1B?”
• “It would be nice to be making the billions.” / “We’ve been thinking that maybe we should just flip to a for-profit. Making the money for us sounds great and all.”
• “Can’t see us turning this into a for-profit without a very nasty fight… It’d be wrong to steal the non-profit from him. That’d be pretty morally bankrupt… and he’s really not an idiot. His story will correctly be that we weren’t honest with him in the end about still wanting to do the for-profit just without him.”
• Moreover, he wrote, “This is our only chance to get rid of Musk… Let me make 1 billion USD.”

Although Brockman claims some scenarios are hypothetical after a board expulsion of Musk, he is not exactly indifferent to fame and fortune.

The reason for emphasizing this is because Brockman previously promised to donate 100,000 USD to the OpenAI nonprofit foundation, a promise never fulfilled; when asked whether he aimed to fund the nonprofit or become a billionaire through OpenAI, he responded generously that “having 1 billion USD in stock is already satisfying,” but when Musk’s lawyer Molo asked why he didn’t donate the remaining 29 billion USD stake to the OpenAI nonprofit, Brockman was speechless.

By comparison, Brockman had previously invested 471 million USD in his former company Stripe and held shares in cloud provider Corweave, which is one of OpenAI’s partners. His involvement as a tech co-founder became a hot topic of debate.

Insider Two: Former OpenAI board member met Musk during team-building, then accepted sperm donation and fathered four children

On May 7, Beijing time, Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member and mother of four children with Musk, also appeared as a witness in court.

She stated that she first met Musk during a company team-building event at OpenAI in 2016, and subsequently served on the board for several years.

After deciding to become a single mother and have children, Musk voluntarily offered to donate sperm as a donor for her IVF procedures.

Regarding their current relationship, Zilis said, “We are now in a romantic relationship, and Musk visits regularly.” She denied being Musk’s “secret agent” or “intelligence channel,” while Musk referred to her as a “close advisor.”

After Musk’s relationship with other co-founders of OpenAI broke down in 2018, she continued to act as a communication bridge; only after Musk founded the rival xAI in 2023 did she officially leave the OpenAI board.

Insider Three: OpenAI’s original name was “AI Manhattan Project,” later Musk personally named it

In May 2015, Sam Altman, then president of YC, sent Musk an email proposing that Y Combinator lead a “Manhattan Project-style AI lab.” （Odaily Planet Daily notes: referencing Oppenheimer’s atomic bomb project.)

Ultimately, Musk personally named this new AI lab “Open AI Institute,” abbreviated as “OpenAI” （drawing from open-source philosophy)—a name embodying OpenAI’s core principles—openness, transparency, and service to all humanity.

Looking back, the development of AGI and the awkward situation of the court case suggest that Sam Altman may have long foreseen that OpenAI and large AI models would become, like atomic bombs, tools initially hoped to “end wars,” but ultimately turning into “weapons of mass destruction.” Now that OpenAI has fully transitioned into a profit-driven company planning an IPO, it also signifies a departure from its original open-source spirit.

Insider Four: Musk “poached” former Google researcher Ilya Sutskever with a phone call to join OpenAI

In 2015, Ilya Sutskever, then acquired by Google, suddenly received a “cold email” from Sam Altman （Odaily Planet Daily notes: an email sent directly to someone with no prior interaction) inviting him to dinner with Brockman and Musk to discuss founding a new AI research organization (later OpenAI). At that time, Altman emphasized that the goal was to develop beneficial AGI for humanity and to avoid monopolization by a few giants.

He had been working at Google for nearly three years and was highly regarded by Google Brain and DeepMind founders like Demis Hassabis, who tried to persuade him to stay.

Faced with the offer from the “upstart” OpenAI, which had yet to produce significant results, Sutskever hesitated despite sharing the same vision. Ultimately, Musk called him on the day OpenAI was officially announced, convincing him to join, thus bringing a foundational figure to OpenAI’s early development.

Unfortunately, in November 2023, Sutskever, then a board member, participated in the “removal of CEO Sam Altman” over AI safety and commercialization issues, ending with Altman controlling the board, Sutskever’s public apology, and his resignation from the board. In May 2024, he officially left OpenAI, with Altman publicly thanking him: “Without Ilya, there would be no OpenAI today.”

Insider Five: OpenAI nearly became a Tesla subsidiary; OpenAI employees once worked for Tesla for free

These details come from former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis and co-founder and president Greg Brockman.

Zilis stated that around 2017, about two years after OpenAI’s founding, Musk and Altman, facing issues with computing power and funding, were desperate to find resources.

One day, Musk proposed integrating OpenAI into Tesla as a subsidiary, turning it into an internal AI lab to seek more funding and resources. He also prepared a Tesla board seat for Altman. However, after strong resistance from Altman and Brockman, the plan was abandoned. Subsequently, Musk gradually parted ways with the founding team and severed ties in 2018.

Additionally, Brockman pointed out that Musk had assigned several OpenAI employees to work for Tesla’s autonomous driving team for free, including former OpenAI researcher and now AI industry heavyweight Andrej Karpathy.

Insider Six: Musk used a Tesla Model 3 Founders Edition to “bribe” Brockman and Sutskever

In July 2017, just before the “haunted house meeting” over OpenAI’s majority stake, Musk emailed some executives, saying: “As a thank you for your contributions to OpenAI, I want to give each of you a Founder Series Model 3. These are the first produced, not yet available to the public.”

In August 2017, Sutskever also mentioned this in a message to Brockman: “At least we’re getting our Teslas.” / “Will a Model 3 make you accept massively unfavorable terms?” At that time, OpenAI’s top executives were already prepared for Musk’s “sweet talk.”

Brockman testified in court that Musk’s “Tesla car reward” was not due to their hard work but was a form of “flattery” to gain influence over OpenAI, especially over Sutskever. （Odaily Planet Daily notes: even a kind of disguised bribe.) The cars were delivered in late August 2017, just before the meeting on OpenAI’s equity distribution.

Interestingly, as a goodwill gift, Sutskever commissioned a painting of a Tesla Model 3 and presented it to Musk at the “haunted house” meeting.

Insider Seven: At the haunted house, Musk suddenly lost control and nearly “hit someone”

In August 2017, after OpenAI defeated top human players in Dota 2, Musk proposed a celebration and invited the team to a party at his newly purchased 47-acre mansion in Hillsborough, California, worth 23 million USD.

Because the mansion was old, poorly maintained, and eerie (like a Gatsby-style haunted estate), Musk called it the “haunted mansion,” warning everyone in advance: “You might see party carnage.”

Brockman recalled that besides the OpenAI team, Musk’s then-girlfriend Amber Heard was also present at first, pouring whiskey for everyone before leaving with friends. The atmosphere was initially friendly, but when discussions turned to the “next step” of turning OpenAI into a profit-oriented entity, things changed—when their expectations about equity and control were not met, Musk “suddenly stood up, stormed around the table, and became very angry.” Brockman said, “I really thought he was going to hit me.”

Finally, Musk grabbed the painting of Sutskever and announced he would cut off funding unless Brockman and Sutskever resigned, then stormed out, ending the party in chaos.

Insider Eight: Musk “endured humiliation” to fight for control of OpenAI, all for his “Mars dream”?

In court, when asked why Musk was so determined to gain control of OpenAI, Brockman said Musk told him that he needed 80 billion USD to realize his grand plan of building a city on Mars.

Meanwhile, SpaceX’s IPO was also underway, with a fundraising target of about 75 billion USD, close to Brockman’s figure.

After eight years, the root of Musk’s love-hate relationship with OpenAI may finally be clear—he needs OpenAI as a key vessel to feed SpaceX. If he had succeeded in controlling OpenAI from the start, he might have transformed it into a profit-oriented entity like Altman and Brockman. The difference is, Musk might not have needed to create xAI and merge it into SpaceX later.

And according to the latest news, Musk has shifted to collaborating with OpenAI’s biggest competitor, Anthropic, betting his existing computing resources on the latter, in a curve to save his ultimate dream—landing on Mars. See “Elon Musk and Anthropic, heading to space for power”.

Finally, we conclude with a court snippet from this case involving the highest compensation of 134 billion USD—the “biggest AI case in history.”

According to documents submitted by OpenAI’s lawyers, two days before the trial, Musk texted Brockman to inquire about settlement intentions. When Brockman suggested both sides should drop their claims, Musk sharply retorted: “This weekend, you and Sam will become the most hated people in America. If you insist, so be it.”

Although Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ultimately did not accept this message as evidence, it’s clear that the “battle” between Musk and OpenAI has not yet revealed its final cards.