OpenAI 재판 속편: 머스크의 분노, 테슬라에 자금 수혈, 그리고 '유령 회의' 내막

Original｜Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author｜Wenser (@wenser 2010 )

On April 28, Musk and a group of OpenAI executives faced off in court at the Oakland Federal Court in California. (See: Musk vs. Altman: The Biggest Trial in AI History Begins)

This man, bearing the title of the world's richest person, was a co-founder of OpenAI, only to leave in a huff, much like Jobs did back in the day. As insider information from the opening statements and court evidence on May 6 and 7 emerged, more unknown details of this case, involving two trillion-dollar tech giants, SpaceX and OpenAI, were gradually exposed to the public. These include both Musk's own maneuvering and the personal motives and public principles of OpenAI's executives.

Odaily Planet Daily has compiled eight stories based on public information and trial documents for readers to understand the background of this "biggest AI trial in history," involving a potential settlement of up to $134 billion.

Inside Story 1: Musk Invested $38 Million in Startup Funds; OpenAI Executive Greg Brockman Cashed in $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 diaries from 2015 to 2023, appeared as a witness and evidence in the California court. Musk's lawyer, Steven Molo, quickly seized on a "weak point"—in contrast to Musk's injection of $38 million in hard cash to support OpenAI's founding and early development, Greg Brockman himself stated that he "did not invest a single cent in OpenAI's founding and development process." However, based on OpenAI's post-latest-funding valuation of $825 billion, his personal OpenAI equity is now worth approximately $30 billion.

Greg Brockman's diaries also laid bare his "ambition for wealth," 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.” (Making billions sounds nice / Maybe we should just turn into a for-profit company. Making money sounds good.) 
• “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 will inevitably lead to an ugly fight... Stealing his non-profit would be morally bankrupt... He's not really an idiot. He'll rightly say we weren't honest with him in the end about still wanting to go for-profit without him.)
• Furthermore, he also wrote, “This is our only chance to get rid of Musk... to make me $1 billion.”

Although Greg Brockman argued that some of these were hypothetical scenarios after the board ousted Musk, it was hardly a portrayal of someone with lofty ideals.

This point is emphasized because Greg Brockman had previously promised to donate $100,000 to the OpenAI nonprofit 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, "Having $1 billion in stock would be satisfying enough." But when Musk's lawyer Molo asked why he didn't donate the remaining $29 billion in equity to the OpenAI nonprofit foundation, Greg was left speechless.

For context, 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 via technical contribution, suddenly became the center of public opinion for wanting both fame and fortune.

Inside Story 2: Former OpenAI Board Member Met Musk at a Team-Building Event, Later Accepted Sperm Donation and Gave Birth to Four Children

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

According to her testimony, she first met Musk at an OpenAI company team-building event. She had joined OpenAI in 2016 and served as a board member for several years.

After she decided to become a single mother and have children, Musk, who has always championed "human-centricity," proactively offered to donate sperm as a donor for her IVF procedure.

Regarding their current emotional state, Shivon Zilis stated, "We are in a romantic relationship; Musk visits regularly." However, she denied claims of being Musk's "secret agent" or "intelligence channel"; Musk, on the other hand, has titled her his "close advisor."

After Musk's relationship with other OpenAI co-founders soured in 2018, she still acted as a bridge of communication. She officially left the OpenAI board only after Musk founded his OpenAI competitor, xAI, in 2023.

Inside Story 3: OpenAI Was Originally Named the "AI Manhattan Project," Then Musk Personally Settled on the Current Name

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

Ultimately, Musk personally named the new AI lab the "Open AI Institute," abbreviated as "OpenAI" (drawing inspiration from the open-source philosophy)—a name that embodies the core principle behind OpenAI's creation: Openness, transparency, and service to all of humanity.

Looking back now, given the trajectory of AGI development and the unfortunate situation of the two parties facing each other in court, Sam Altman might have foreseen long ago that OpenAI and large AI models, like the atomic bomb, could transform from a "tool to end wars" into a "weapon of mass destruction capable of destroying the world." Moreover, OpenAI's complete transformation into a for-profit company and its plans to go public signal its departure from its former spirit of open source and openness.

Inside Story 4: Musk Poached Ex-Google Researcher Ilya Sutskever to OpenAI with a Single Phone Call

In 2015, Ilya Sutskever, who was acquired by Google for talent, suddenly received a "cold email" from Sam Altman (Odaily Planet Daily Note: A personal email sent directly to someone with whom you have no prior connection or direct interaction), inviting him to dinner with Greg Brockman and Musk to discuss forming a new AI research organization (which would become OpenAI). At that time, Altman emphasized that the organization's goal was to develop AGI for the benefit of all humanity, to prevent monopoly by a few giant corporations.

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

Despite sharing the same philosophy, Sutskever hesitated when faced with the offer of "Chief Scientist" from OpenAI, an up-and-coming entity that had not yet achieved much. Ultimately, on the day of OpenAI's official public launch, Musk called him, convincing him to switch jobs and join, thereby recruiting a foundational figure for OpenAI's early development.

Unfortunately, in November 2023, board member Ilya Sutskever participated in the "removal of Sam Altman as CEO" due to disagreements over AI safety and commercial development. The incident ended with Sam Altman taking control of the board, Ilya issuing a public apology, and resigning from the board. In May 2024, he officially left OpenAI. At the time, Altman publicly thanked him, saying, "Without Ilya, there would be no OpenAI today."

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

These two pieces of information come from former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis and OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman, mentioned earlier.

According to Shivon Zilis, in 2017, about two years after OpenAI's founding, Musk, Altman, and others were struggling with computing resources and funding, thinking of ways to secure capital and GPU resources daily.

One day, Musk suddenly proposed that OpenAI merge into Tesla, becoming its subsidiary, acting as an internal AI lab to seek more funding and resource support. Additionally, Musk prepared a Tesla board seat for Sam Altman. Of course, due to strong insistence from Altman and Greg Brockman, this plan was ultimately not realized. It was around this time that Musk began to part ways with OpenAI's current founding team, culminating in a complete rupture of their relationship in 2018, leading to his angry departure.

Furthermore, Greg Brockman pointed out that Musk had transferred several OpenAI employees to work for Tesla's autonomous driving team for free, including former OpenAI researcher Andrej Karpathy, who later officially joined Tesla and is now considered one of the "grandmasters" of the AI world.

Inside Story 6: Musk "Bribed" Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever with Founder Series Tesla Model 3s

In July 2017, on the eve of the "haunted house meeting" about controlling OpenAI's majority equity, Musk emailed some OpenAI executives, stating clearly: "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 to be produced and are not yet available to the public."

In August 2017, Sutskever texted Brockman about this: "At least we’re getting our Teslas." (At least we got the Model 3.) "Will a Model 3 make you be willing to accept massively unfavourable terms?" (Will a Model 3 make you accept massively unfavorable terms?) At that time, OpenAI's top executives were already wary of Musk's "sugar-coated bullets."

Greg Brockman also stated in court that the "Tesla car reward" mentioned by Musk was not due to hard work but was designed to give him greater influence at OpenAI. It was a way to "curry favor" with him and Ilya Sutskever (Odaily Planet Daily Note: Could even be described as a form of bribery). The cars were delivered in late August 2017, perfectly timed right before the meeting regarding the equity distribution of the for-profit entity.

Interestingly, as a polite return gift, then-OpenAI Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever commissioned a painting of a Tesla Model 3 and gave it to Musk at the subsequent "haunted house meeting."

Inside Story 7: At the Haunted House Meeting, Musk Suddenly Lost His Temper and Nearly "Hit Someone"

In August 2017, after OpenAI defeated top human players in a Dota 2 tournament, Musk suggested "celebrating" and invited the OpenAI team to a party at his newly purchased 47-acre, $23 million mansion in Hillsborough, California.

Because the property was dilapidated, poorly maintained, and had an eerie atmosphere (like a Gatsby-esque, bizarre mansion), Musk jokingly called it a "haunted mansion." He even sent an email warning everyone they might "see party carnage."

According to Greg Brockman's court recollection, besides the OpenAI team, Musk's then-girlfriend Amber Heard was initially present, pouring whiskey for everyone before leaving with her friends. The atmosphere was initially cordial, but as the discussion turned to the "next step plan" of "transitioning OpenAI to a for-profit entity," things changed. When Musk didn't get the desired response regarding equity allocation and control, he seemed to transform, "suddenly stood up, completely lost his temper, and was extremely furious, pacing around the table." Brockman stated directly: "I really thought he was going to hit me."

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

Inside Story 8: Did Musk "Endure Humiliation" to Gain Control of OpenAI to Realize His "Mars Dream"?

In court, when asked, "Why did Musk absolutely need to gain control of OpenAI?", Greg Brockman responded that Musk had told him part of the reason for wanting control was that he needed $80 billion to complete his grand vision of building a city on Mars.

On the other hand, SpaceX's IPO is also progressing rapidly, with a fundraising target coincidentally around $75 billion, quite close to the $80 billion Brockman mentioned.

After eight years, the fundamental crux of the love-hate relationship between Musk and OpenAI might finally be clear. Musk needed OpenAI to become a key vessel for funneling resources into SpaceX. If he had successfully taken control of OpenAI back then, he might have, like Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, still transformed it into a for-profit entity. The difference is that Musk might not have needed to go to the trouble of starting from scratch with xAI and eventually merging it into SpaceX.

Of course, according to the latest news, Musk has turned to collaborating with OpenAI's biggest rival, Anthropic, betting his existing computing resources on the latter as a circuitous way to achieve his ultimate dream—landing on Mars. See: Musk and Anthropic Are Going to Space to Find Electricity.

At the end of the article, we conclude with a minor courtroom anecdote from this "First AI Case," which involves a potential maximum of $134 billion in damages.

According to documents submitted by OpenAI's lawyers, two days before the trial officially began, Musk texted Greg Brockman to probe OpenAI's willingness to settle. When Brockman mentioned that "both sides should drop their claims," Musk retorted sternly: "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 this text message as evidence, based on the current situation, the 'legal war' between Musk and OpenAI is far from revealing its final cards.