Jury selection in Musk v. Altman case begins; prospective jurors express negative views of Elon Musk

Jury selection started Monday in the courtroom battle between Elon Musk and Sam Altman over alleged broken promises at OpenAI. Prospective jurors submitted questionnaires containing negative statements about Musk, including "Elon Musk is a greedy, racist, homophobic piece of garbage" and "Elon Musk is a world-class jerk."

Musk's lawyers tried to have jurors with pre-existing negative opinions of Musk struck from the jury pool, but Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rejected this, stating "The reality is that people don't like him… Many people don't like him, but that doesn't mean that Americans nevertheless can't have integrity for the judicial process."

The nine-person jury that was selected includes some members who said they may not like Musk or hold negative opinions about AI technology, but stated they would not let those views interfere with how they evaluate the facts of the case.