Closing time
Today was closing arguments in the Musk v. Altman trial, and I almost feel bad writing about the unbelievable demolition derby I just witnessed. Steven Molo, Musk’s lawyer, stumbled over his words. He at one point called Greg Brockman — a co-defendant — Greg Altman. He erroneously claimed that Musk wasn’t asking for money and had to be corrected by the judge. He made it clear we’ve heard from many liars over the past few weeks, but offered little evidence for Musk’s actual legal claims. Closing time What did we learn throughout Musk v. Altman? A lot of gossip. Closing time What did we learn throughout Musk v. Altman? A lot of gossip. OpenAI’s lawyer, Sarah Eddy, countered this by simply arranging the mountain of evidence that the company introduced in chronological order. She didn’t spend time trying to pretend anyone in this trial is especially reliable. She did, however, get the zinger of the day, about Musk: “Even the mother of his children can’t back his story.” William Savitt, who took the defendant baton after her presentation, demonstrated the number of times Musk “didn’t recall” some critical detail — and wondered how a sophisticated businessman couldn’t understand or read a four-page term sheet OpenAI had sent to him. I found myself wondering, again, why we were all wasting our time here. So let’s discuss the gossip, which is the real point of this trial. How good was it? Here are my favorite nuggets. - Musk used OpenAI to improve xAI. I’m afraid this trial was front-loaded; revealed the first week, this was the best bit of gossip we got. As I suggested in 2024, Grok was developed very fast — so fast I was skeptical it was entirely independent. Turns out, it wasn’t. Musk admitted that xAI distilled other models, including OpenAI’s. What was all that investor money for, again? - Tesla AI failed to run at AGI. Musk in fact failed at this twice, once by unsuccessfully trying to acquire OpenAI and again by unsuccessfully trying to kneecap OpenAI by recruiting its employees, including Sam Altman himself, for a “world-class AI lab.” - Sam Altman confirmed decade-old reports that he thought about running for governor of California. - Everyone, but especially Musk, is obsessed with Demis Hassabis. - Musk claimed he doesn’t lose his temper. During the cross examination, he lost his temper at OpenAI’s Savitt. - Mira Murati played both sides of the Altman ouster — providing some chats that got him removed, then feeding Altman details about what the board was up to, publicly complaining about the event, and refusing to tell employees about her role in the ouster. I would call this “directionally very bad” for Murati. Everyone hammered on Altman as a snake, but Murati is no better. - Musk wanted his kids to inherit OpenAI. (At least, according to Altman!) - Altman hired Savitt, who kicked Musk’s ass on Twitter, and may very well kick his ass again. I was amused by Altman’s…
