OpenAI trial: President Greg Brockman claims Elon Musk ‘was going to hit me’ after being denied …

OpenAI President Greg Brockman returned to the witness stand for his second day of testimony in the ongoing trial involving Elon Musk and OpenAI. The case, being heard in a California courtroom, focuses on Musk’s claims that OpenAI moved away from its original nonprofit mission. During questioning by OpenAI’s lawyers, Greg Brockman shared details of early disagreements within the company, including Elon Musk’s demands for control, funding decisions, and internal tensions among cofounders. In his testimony, Brockman claimed that Musk was so angry at one point that he thought the Tesla CEO was going to hit him. Greg Brockman told the court that Elon Musk rejected a proposal that would have given him less than 50% equity in OpenAI’s planned for-profit structure. He said Musk instead wanted greater control, including four out of seven board seats and the role of CEO.According to Brockman, Musk did not link these demands to OpenAI’s mission. Instead, he said Musk believed “people needed to know he was in charge” and that he “needed $80 billion dollars to create a city” on Mars.Brockman described a key meeting in August 2017 where he and cofounder Ilya Sutskever proposed equal shares among founders. He said Musk reacted strongly, remaining silent for several minutes before rejecting the proposal and leaving the meeting.Brockman testified that Musk allegedly stormed out, looking so angry that Brockman said “I actually thought he was going to hit me”.Following the dispute, Brockman said Elon Musk stopped his planned financial support for OpenAI. Musk had earlier donated about $38 million to the organisation between 2015 and 2017. Brockman told the court that the decision had a major impact, as the team believed it needed about $10 billion to continue its work at the timeBrockman also spoke about an early AI demonstration in 2016 involving researcher Alec Radford. He said Musk criticised the system, calling it “stupid” and saying “kids on the internet could do a better job of it.” According to Brockman, the reaction left Radford “absolutely crushed, demoralized” and nearly led him to leave AI research.An email from September 2017 was also discussed in court. In the message, Brockman and Sutskever wrote that OpenAI’s goal was “to make the future good and to avoid an AGI dictatorship.”Musk responded: “Guys, I've had enough. This is the final straw. Either go do something on your own or continue with OpenAI as a non-profit. I will no longer fund OpenAI until you have made a firm commitment to stay or I'm just being a fool who is essentially providing free funding for you to create a startup.”