OpenAI裁判続編：マスク暴走、テスラへの資金供給と「幽霊会議」の内幕

Original｜Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author｜Wenser (@wenser2010)

On April 28, Musk and a group of OpenAI executives faced off in federal court in Oakland, California. (See: Musk vs. Altman: The Biggest Case in AI History Goes to Trial)

The man, bearing the title of the world's richest person, co-founded OpenAI and then, like Jobs before him, left in a huff. With the release of inside information from the court hearings on May 6 and 7, including opening statements and exhibits, more unknown details of the case involving two trillion-dollar tech giants, SpaceX and OpenAI, have gradually come to light. These details reveal both Musk's maneuvers and the personal motives and public principles of OpenAI executives.

Based on public information and trial documents, Odaily Planet Daily has compiled eight stories to provide readers with a behind-the-scenes look at the "biggest AI trial in history," which involves a potential settlement of up to $134 billion.

Insider Story 1: Musk Invested $38 Million in Seed Funding, OpenAI Executive Greg Brockman 'Earned' $30 Billion in Equity

During the second week of Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI, OpenAI co-founder and President Greg Brockman, along with his personal diary from 2015 to 2023, appeared as a witness and evidence in the California court. Musk's lawyer, Steven Molo, quickly seized on a discrepancy: compared to Musk's investment of $38 million in cash to support the founding and early development of OpenAI, Greg Brockman himself stated that he "didn't invest a cent in OpenAI's founding and development." Yet, at OpenAI's post-latest-funding valuation of $825 billion, his personal OpenAI equity is worth approximately $30 billion.

Greg Brockman's diary also revealed his "wealth ambitions," including the following entries:

• "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." (Making billions sounds good / Maybe we should just switch to a for-profit company; making money sounds great.) 
• "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." (Turning it into a for-profit would inevitably involve a nasty fight... Stealing his non-profit would be morally bankrupt... He's not stupid. He'll rightly say we weren't honest with him in the end about still wanting to do the for-profit, just without him.)
• Furthermore, he wrote, "This is our only chance to get rid of Musk... It would let me make a billion dollars."

Although Greg Brockman argued that some scenarios were hypothetical situations following the board's ousting of Musk, it hardly paints a picture of a man uninterested in fame and fortune.

The reason this is emphasized is that Greg Brockman had previously promised to donate $100,000 to the OpenAI non-profit foundation, a promise that was never fulfilled. When asked, "Do you want to fund a non-profit, or do you want to become a billionaire through OpenAI?" he responded magnanimously, "I'd be satisfied with $1 billion in stock." But when pressed by Musk's lawyer Molo on why he didn't donate the remaining $29 billion in equity to the OpenAI non-profit foundation, Greg was left speechless.

For comparison, Greg invested $471 million in his former company Stripe and holds shares in cloud computing provider CoreWeave, one of OpenAI's partners. The co-founder, who joined on a technical basis, suddenly became the focal point of public opinion for wanting to have it both ways.

Insider Story 2: Former OpenAI Board Member Met Musk at a Company Retreat, Then Accepted Sperm Donation and Gave Birth to Four Children

On May 7 Beijing time, Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member and mother of four of Musk's children, also testified in court.

According to her, she first met Musk at an OpenAI company retreat. She joined OpenAI in 2016 and served on the board for several years.

After deciding to become a single mother and have children, Musk, who has always championed "human-centric" values, proactively offered to donate sperm for her to have test-tube babies.

Regarding their current emotional state, Shivon Zilis stated, "We are now in a romantic relationship, and Musk visits regularly." However, she denied being Musk's "secret agent" or "information channel"; Musk, on the other hand, referred to her as his "close advisor."

After Musk's relationship with other OpenAI co-founders broke down in 2018, she continued to act as a bridge. It wasn't until Musk founded OpenAI competitor xAI in 2023 that she formally left the OpenAI board.

Insider Story 3: OpenAI Was Originally Called the "AI Manhattan Project," Then Musk Personally Named It

In May 2015, Sam Altman, a founder of OpenAI who was then president of YC, sent Musk an email proposing that Y Combinator lead the creation of a "Manhattan Project-style AI lab." (Odaily Planet Daily Note: A reference to the atomic bomb project led by Oppenheimer.)

Ultimately, Musk personally named the new AI lab "Open AI Institute," abbreviated as "OpenAI" (drawing on the Open Source philosophy) — a name that embodies the core principles of OpenAI's birth: openness, transparency, and serving all of humanity.

In hindsight, given the development path of AGI and the current awkward situation of the two facing off in court, Sam Altman might have foreseen that OpenAI and large AI models would become like the atomic bomb – transforming from a tool hoped to "end wars" into a "weapon of mass destruction capable of destroying the world." And OpenAI's complete transformation into a for-profit company planning an IPO also signals its departure from its former spirit of open source and openness.

Insider Story 4: Musk Poached Former Google Researcher Ilya Sutskever to Join OpenAI with a Single Phone Call

In 2015, Ilya Sutskever, whom Google had acquired for its talent, suddenly received a "cold email" from Sam Altman (Odaily Planet Daily Note: A direct personal email sent to someone with no prior connection or interaction) inviting him to dinner with Greg Brockman and Musk to discuss establishing a new AI research organization (later OpenAI). Sam Altman emphasized the organization's goal was to develop AGI for the benefit of all humanity, preventing monopolization by a few giant companies.

At the time, Sutskever had worked at Google for nearly 3 years and was highly valued and strongly urged to stay by the Google Brain team and DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis.

Faced with the "Chief Scientist" offer from OpenAI, a "rising star" that hadn't yet achieved much, Ilya Sutskever hesitated despite sharing the same philosophy, harboring various concerns. Ultimately, on the day of OpenAI's official public launch, Musk called him, convincing him to jump ship, thus attracting a foundational figure for OpenAI's early development.

Unfortunately, in November 2023, Ilya Sutskever, as a board member, participated in the "ouster of Sam Altman as CEO" due to differences over AI safety and commercialization paths. The incident ended with Sam Altman taking control of the board, Ilya publicly apologizing, and resigning from the board. In May 2024, he formally left OpenAI. Sam Altman publicly thanked him at the time, saying, "Without Ilya, OpenAI would not be what it is today."

Insider Story 5: OpenAI Almost Became a Tesla Subsidiary; OpenAI Employees Once Worked for Tesla for Free

These two pieces of information come from the aforementioned former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis and OpenAI co-founder and President Greg Brockman.

According to Shivon Zilis, around 2017, about two years after OpenAI's founding, Musk, Sam Altman, and others were struggling with issues like computing resources and funding, constantly brainstorming ways to secure capital and GPU resources.

One day, Musk suddenly proposed integrating OpenAI into Tesla, making it a subsidiary to serve as an internal AI lab to seek more funding and resource support. Additionally, Musk prepared a Tesla board seat for Sam Altman. Naturally, due to strong insistence from Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, the plan ultimately did not materialize. It was after this that Musk gradually parted ways with OpenAI's current founding team, leading to a complete breakdown in their relationship in 2018 and his angry departure.

Furthermore, Greg Brockman noted that Musk had pulled several OpenAI employees to work "for free" on Tesla's autonomous driving team, including former OpenAI researcher Andrej Karpathy, who later formally joined Tesla and is now considered one of the "great masters of the AI world."

Insider Story 6: Musk Used Tesla Model 3 Founder Series to "Bribe" Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever

In July 2017, on the eve of the "Haunted House Meeting" concerning the control fight over OpenAI's majority equity, Musk explicitly stated in an email to some OpenAI executives: "As a token of thanks for your contributions to OpenAI, I want to give each of you a Founder Series Model 3. These are among the first produced and are not yet available to the public."

In August 2017, Sutskever mentioned this in a text message to Brockman: "At least we're getting our Teslas." (At least we're getting the Model 3.) "Will a Model 3 make you be willing to accept massively unfavourable terms?" (Can a Model 3 make you accept extremely unfavorable conditions?) By then, OpenAI's top brass were already prepared for Musk's "sugar-coated bullets."

Greg Brockman also stated in court that the "Tesla car reward" Musk mentioned wasn't for diligent work but to gain greater influence within OpenAI; it was a way to "curry favor" with him and Ilya Sutskever (Odaily Planet Daily Note: Could even be considered a form of bribery). Because the cars were delivered in late August 2017, right before the meeting on equity distribution in OpenAI's for-profit entity.

Interestingly, as a goodwill return gesture, then-OpenAI Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever commissioned a painting of a Tesla Model 3 and presented it to Musk at the subsequent "Haunted House Meeting."

Insider Story 7: At the "Haunted House Meeting," Musk Suddenly Went Berserk, Almost "Hitting Someone"

In August 2017, after OpenAI defeated top human players in a Dota 2 competition, Musk proposed a "celebration," inviting the OpenAI team to a party at his newly purchased, eerie mansion in Hillsborough, California. The property, which cost $23 million, was situated on 47 acres.

Due to its old décor, poor maintenance, and strange atmosphere (like a Gatsby-esque, bizarre mansion), Musk jokingly called it the "haunted mansion," even warning everyone via email that they might see "party carnage."

According to Greg Brockman's courtroom recollections, besides the OpenAI team, Musk's then-girlfriend Amber Heard was initially present, poured everyone whiskey, and then left with friends. The atmosphere was initially pleasant, but things changed when the discussion turned to the "next steps" for "OpenAI transitioning to a for-profit entity." After not getting the expected response regarding equity distribution and control, Musk seemed to transform, "suddenly stood up, stormed around the table, and was extremely angry." Brockman stated directly: "I really thought he was going to hit me at that moment."

Finally, Musk grabbed the painting Ilya Sutskever had given him, announced he would cut off financial support for OpenAI unless Brockman and Sutskever resigned, and stormed out of the room, ending the party on a sour note.

Insider Story 8: Musk "Endured Humiliation" to Seize Control of OpenAI – Just to Achieve His "Mars Dream"?

In the courtroom, when asked, "Why did Musk absolutely need to gain control of OpenAI?" Greg Brockman said Musk told him that part of the reason was: He needed $80 billion to realize his grand vision of building a city on Mars.

Meanwhile, SpaceX's IPO was progressing intensively, with its fundraising target coincidentally being around $75 billion, quite close to the $80 billion Brockman mentioned.

After eight years, the root cause of the love-hate relationship between Musk and OpenAI might finally be coming to light – Musk needed OpenAI to become a key vessel for injecting capital into SpaceX. If he had successfully taken control of OpenAI, he might have, like Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, eventually transformed it into a for-profit entity anyway. The difference is Musk might not have had to redundantly create xAI from scratch and eventually merge it into SpaceX.

Of course, according to the latest news, Musk has instead sought cooperation with OpenAI's biggest competitor, Anthropic, betting his available computing resources on it as a roundabout way to achieve his ultimate dream – landing on Mars. See: Musk and Anthropic Are Going to Space to Find Electricity.

We conclude the article with a courtroom sidebar from this "first major case in the AI field," involving potential compensation of up to $134 billion.

According to documents filed by OpenAI's lawyers, two days before the trial officially began, Musk sent a text message to Greg Brockman probing OpenAI's willingness to settle. When Brockman mentioned, "Both sides should drop their claims," Musk retorted harshly: "This weekend, you and Sam will be the most hated men in America. If you insist, so be it."

Although the presiding judge, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, ultimately did not admit the text message as evidence, judging from the current situation, the "lawsuit war" between Musk and OpenAI is far from revealing its final cards.