Altman testifies Musk wanted OpenAI control to go to his kids

In a dramatic day of testimony, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman defended himself against Elon Musk's accusations of deception and self-dealing. Altman described a 'hair-raising' moment when Musk, during early OpenAI discussions, proposed that control of the nonprofit should transfer to his own children upon his death. 'We didn’t feel comfortable with that,' Altman said, portraying Musk as obsessed with controlling the AI company. Altman also claimed Musk offered him the chance to run an AI unit within Tesla in 2018 as a 'vague, lightweight threat' to crush OpenAI.

Musk's lawyer Steven Molo cross-examined Altman aggressively, asking frontally, 'Are you completely trustworthy?' and listing former colleagues who have called Altman a liar, including ex-board members and Anthropic cofounders. Molo even dredged up a 15-year-old dispute over user counts from Altman's startup Loopt. Despite the attacks, little evidence surfaced to support Musk's core claim—that Altman misused the $38 million Musk donated to create a for-profit empire worth $850 billion. Altman and Musk's former chief of staff testified no special conditions were attached to Musk's gifts. The case may also be time-barred due to expired statutes of limitations.