Sam Altman testifies Elon Musk's 'chainsaw' management damaged OpenAI culture

In testimony from the ongoing Musk v. OpenAI trial, CEO Sam Altman detailed how Elon Musk’s management approach alienated researchers at the AI startup. Altman said Musk required OpenAI president Greg Brockman and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever to rank researchers by accomplishments and “take a chainsaw through a bunch.” Altman acknowledged this was Musk’s known style but argued it was incompatible with running a successful research lab: “For a research lab where people need psychological safety and long periods of time to pursue an idea, this idea that you constantly have to show your results, and if they’re not good enough on a short period, you’re going to get fired. That really didn’t work for the kind of research we went on to successfully do.” Altman added that Musk’s 2018 departure “was a morale boost in some ways,” as staff realized they didn’t have to work under that pressure anymore.

Musk’s lawsuit claims OpenAI abandoned its original mission of benefitting humanity and that Altman and Brockman tricked him into providing funding. The trial has entered its third week, with testimony from Brockman, former board member Shivon Zilis, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and former CTO Mira Murati. Musk’s legal team has tried to paint Altman as untrustworthy, but Altman’s testimony here reframes the departure as a pivotal moment that saved OpenAI’s culture. The case could influence how AI companies balance rapid innovation with ethical governance, especially given Musk’s competing interests at Tesla and xAI.