The Archive

Musk testifies in OpenAI lawsuit, alleges company abandoned non-profit mission; courtroom sketch circulates on social media.

Reddit post about Sam Altman's surname; unrelated to AI technical developments.

Commentary on Sam Altman's communication style; no substantive AI development news.

Sam Altman reportedly shifts public position on AI-driven human replacement claims.

In the first week of the landmark trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI, Musk took the stand in a crisp black suit and tie and argued that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman had deceived him into bankrolling the company. Along the way, he warned that AI could destroy us all and sat…

Sam Altman shifts stance on UBI, arguing fixed cash payments inadequate for AI-driven labor disruption; proposes alternative support models.

Elon Musk spent the better part of three days on the witness stand this week in his lawsuit against OpenAI, and it’s already getting messy. Emails, texts, and his own tweets are surfacing in court, and there are plenty more witnesses to come. Musk’s argument against OpenAI? By converting the company to a for-profit model, Sam Altman betrayed the “nonprofit for the […]

OpenAI is preparing to launch a new frontier cybersecurity model, GPT-5.5-Cyber. CEO Sam Altman said the model will not be available to the general public, but will be first rolled out to a select group of trusted "cyber defenders" in order for institutions to shore up their cyberdefenses. The limited rollout will take place "in the next few days," Altman said on X. "We will work with the entire ecosystem and the government to figure out trusted access for Cyber." It's not clear who will get access to the model first, though previous "trusted access" schemes involved vetted professionals and ...

Just a simple country CEO who was being tricked by that sophisticated lawyer | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images About five hours into Elon Musk's testimony, I typed the following sentence into my notes: "I have never been more sympathetic to Sam Altman in my life." Musk's direct testimony was an improvement over yesterday - even if his lawyer kept asking leading questions to cue him in how to answer. But that memory was immediately obliterated by an absolutely miserable cross-examination. For hours, Musk refused to answer yes or no questions with yes or no, occasionally "forgot"...

The Musk v. Altman trial is underway, and that means exhibits, or the evidence to be presented in court, are being revealed piece by piece. So far, email exchanges, photos, and corporate documents are circulating from the earliest days of OpenAI - and from before the AI lab even had a name. Some high-level takeaways: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gave OpenAI an in-demand supercomputer, Musk largely drafted OpenAI's mission and heavily influenced its early structure, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appeared to want to lean heavily on Y Combinator for early support for OpenAI, OpenAI president Greg Brockman an...

Seven families of victims injured or killed in the Tumbler Ridge school shooting in Canada have filed lawsuits against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, accusing the company and its leadership of negligence after they failed to alert police to the suspected shooter's ChatGPT activity. The families allege OpenAI stayed silent after its systems flagged activity by shooting suspect Jesse Van Rootselaar in order to protect the company's reputation and upcoming initial public offering (IPO). The Wall Street Journal reports that OpenAI "considered" flagging the 18-year-old's activity to police, which repo...

Lawsuits: OpenAI didn't report ChatGPT user to cops to protect Altman, IPO.

Today the first witness was sworn in in Musk v. Altman: Elon Musk. I was surprised by how flat he seemed. This is not the first time I've seen Musk in court. During his defamation suit, he turned on the charm and the jury responded by finding him not guilty. Today he looked adrift and unprepared. The only times he showed real animation were when he was bragging about how much he'd done for OpenAI. The direct examination is a way of telling a story through questions; it's important to make the narrative clear. For a suit that accuses Sam Altman of straying from OpenAI's mission, Musk spent a w...

On the stand, Elon Musk is positioning himself as a savior. In the high-profile trial between him and his fellow OpenAI co-founder, now CEO, Sam Altman, Musk opened by going through his background. He went as far back as being raised in South Africa and arriving in Canada for college with "2,500 in Canadian travelers' checks and a bag of clothes and books," then spent an unusually long time talking about his past, from Zip2 to PayPal to the current, more familiar slate of companies he now runs. Why is Musk giving the jury so much of his origin story? Though he may be, depending on the day, th...

Elon Musk officially began his testimony in the trial he has brought against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and company president Greg Brockman. The three were on the initial founding team of OpenAI, with Musk investing up to $38 million early on before the co-founders' relationship soured over disagreements over company structure and mission, including whether or not OpenAI should be folded into Musk-owned Tesla. Musk walked away and, years later, founded xAI - his own direct competitor to OpenAI, which is now owned by Musk's SpaceX. In recent years, Musk has filed no less than four different lawsuit...

Sam Altman and Matt Garman discuss OpenAI-AWS partnership on Bedrock Managed Agents; Stratechery covers OpenAI-Microsoft deal implications.

Elon Musk sues Sam Altman and OpenAI for $130B over alleged breach of charitable mission and for-profit restructuring.

On Monday, the courtroom battle between Elon Musk and Sam Altman over alleged broken promises at OpenAI started, as usual, with jury selection. The only tricky part? A lot of the prospective jurors already have an opinion about Elon Musk, and it's not a good one. The Verge reporter Elizabeth Lopatto, who was there at the courthouse, quoted statements from some of the juror questionnaires: "Elon Musk is a greedy, racist, homophobic piece of garbage." "Elon Musk is a world-class jerk." "I very much dislike Tesla. As a woman of color, I am very aware of the damaging statements and actions Elon M...

After a yearslong legal feud, Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are heading to trial this week in Northern California in a case that could have sweeping consequences. Ahead of OpenAI’s highly anticipated IPO, the court could rule on whether the company is allowed to exist as a for-profit enterprise and might even oust…

Sam Altman and Elon Musk are set to face off in a high-stakes trial that could alter the future of tech’s leading AI startup, OpenAI. The trial begins with jury selection on April 27th, as Musk pushes forward his 2024 lawsuit that accuses OpenAI of abandoning its founding mission of developing AI to benefit humanity and shifting focus to boosting profits instead. Musk was a cofounder of OpenAI and claims that Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman tricked him into giving the company money, only to turn their backs on their original goal. However, OpenAI says that “This lawsuit has always been a ...

OpenAI publishes five guiding principles for AGI development under Sam Altman's leadership, emphasizing broad humanity benefit.

In a letter to the residents of Tumbler Ridge, Canada, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he is “deeply sorry” that his company failed to alert law enforcement about the suspect in a recent mass shooting.

Sam Altman apologizes for OpenAI's failure to report mass shooter threat to authorities; governance/safety process issue.

Might as well jump, as the poet David Lee Roth once said. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Elon Musk cofounded OpenAI, and then flounced off in a huff when he wasn't anointed CEO, leaving Sam Altman as the last power-hungry man standing. Now, Musk is back with a lawsuit, and a trial is scheduled to start in Oakland, California, on April 27th. Theoretically, it's a legal case about whether OpenAI defrauded Musk. But that's not really what we're all doing here. This is about mess. Over the past couple of years, Musk's legal theories for punishing OpenAI have run the gamut from breach of contr...

Sam Altman highlights GPT-5.5 improvements in token efficiency, latency, and new Codex features.

With an IPO looming for Elon Musk's SpaceX / xAI / X combo platter of companies, SpaceX has announced an odd arrangement to either acquire the automated programming platform Cursor for $60 billion or pay a fee of $10 billion. Buying this startup that's focused on AI coding could help xAI's tools compete with market leader Anthropic, as well as the other competitors. A report by The Information this week said Sergey Brin has directed Google's "strike team" to help its agentic AI tools catch up, while Sam Altman reportedly declared a "code red" at OpenAI last year before shutting down Sora to f...

The AI industry's mudslinging continues.

World, which has raised eyebrows (but also a lot of interest) with its Orb-centered anonymous verification project, is looking to expand its influence via a bevy of new partnerships.

Tinder users who prove they're a real person by visiting an identity-verifying orb will soon be able to get five free boosts in the app - and it's just the latest service to embrace the orb. World, which was co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, initially tested Tinder verification using its facial scanning orbs through a pilot program in Japan last year. It's now expanding the service to "select markets, including Japan and the United States." To verify that they're not a bot or an AI agent, users have to physically visit one of World's orbs in person. According to World, the orb "takes pictu...

Molotov cocktail attack on Sam Altman's home; security incident with no injuries.