Elon Musk testifies that OpenAI's existence stems from Larry Page calling him a 'specieist' over AI safety concerns

Musk took the stand Tuesday in his lawsuit against OpenAI, telling a jury that he co-founded the lab in 2015 with Sam Altman after discussing fears of AI falling into the hands of profit-seeking megacorporations like Google. He testified that the company's founding was prompted by a 2015 meeting with Google co-founder Larry Page, who predicted AI would bring utopia; Musk said Page accused him of being a 'specieist'—someone who favors humans over digital life-forms—when Musk expressed concern about AI risks.

The trial centers on Musk's 2024 lawsuit accusing OpenAI of betraying its nonprofit mission 'for the benefit of all mankind.' Musk says that by 2017 the group realized building advanced AI would require more funding than a nonprofit could raise and discussed creating a for-profit structure. Musk, who had donated at least $38 million to the lab, wanted to be CEO and gain majority control but departed in 2018 after a power struggle with Altman.

After ChatGPT's 2022 launch turned OpenAI into a roughly $730 billion company, Musk sued, alleging Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman stole a charity. He is seeking more than $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft. OpenAI's lead counsel argues Musk lost a power struggle and is 'nursing his sour grapes,' particularly because Musk now runs his own for-profit AI lab, xAI.