Altman testifies Musk wanted to hand OpenAI to his children
sam altman testified that elon musk proposed passing control of openai to his children if he died, highlighting a 2017 clash over governance and management.
during the trial regarding elon musk's lawsuit against openai, sam altman took the stand to counter claims that the company defected from its non-profit mission. altman described a 2017 disagreement where musk suggested openai should pass to his children if he died, arguing that musk misunderstood how to run a research lab and damaged the culture by demanding stack-ranked lists of researchers to fire. openai board chair bret taylor clarified that the foundation's lack of full-time staff was due to complex equity conversions, and the court heard muss remained informed of investments like microsoft's 2018 funding round.