Just when you thought you heard enough bad stuff about Sam Altman, the Musk v OpenAI trial is exposing what insiders really think about him.

According to an article in The Guardian (‘A consistent pattern of lying’: Musk v OpenAI trial exposes what insiders think of Sam Altman, written by Nick Robins-Early and available here), the Musk v OpenAI trial, which on Monday entered its third week, has featured a who’s who of Silicon Valley testifying about OpenAI’s past and its CEO’s contentious leadership. Musk’s attorneys have used former executives, private text messages, diary entries and internal email exchanges to portray Altman as untrustworthy. Altman, who denies Musk’s allegations, will take the stand in the coming days. OpenAI has likewise issued denials.

Here’s what some of Altman’s former allies say about him:

• Mira Murati, OpenAI’s former chief technical officer, once a very close associate of Altman, accused him in video testimony of “creating chaos” at the company and also testified that Altman had a pattern of “saying one thing to one person and completely the opposite to another person”.
• Former board member Helen Toner, who backed Altman’s ouster, told the court in a video deposition that there was a “pattern of behavior related to his honesty and candor” that led to Altman’s removal.
• Natasha McCauley, another former OpenAI board member, alleged in her deposition that Altman caused “repeated crisis events” through his leadership.
• OpenAI co-founder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever responded “Yes” to the question – “You told the board that Altman ‘exhibits a consistent pattern of lying, undermining his execs and pitting his execs against one another’” – posed by Musk’s lawyer.

Of course, the jury has also heard testimony about Elon Musk’s own erratic behavior. OpenAI’s president Greg Brockman claimed last week that Musk became irate and “stormed around the table” at a meeting shortly before the billionaire left the company in 2018.

OpenAI’s attorneys alleged in a filing that Musk reached out to Brockman to settle the case two days before the trial, then became threatening when Brockman refused to meet his demands, saying in a text: “By the end of this week, you and Sam will be the most hated men in America. If you insist, so it will be”.

Musk is seeking the removal of Altman and Brockman, as well as $134bn to be redistributed to OpenAI’s nonprofit and the undoing of its for-profit structure. Closing arguments in the Musk v OpenAI trial are set to take place on Thursday, according to the article. Which means “the coming days” for Altman’s testimony are imminent. Grab your popcorn. 😁

So, what do you think? Will Musk win? Will OpenAI keep its for-profit structure? Can Altman survive all the slings and arrows? The OpenAI soap opera has never been hotter! Tune in tomorrow! And please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

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