Elon Musk and Sam Altman face off in court over OpenAI’s founding mission

Musk’s lawsuit accuses Altman of fraud, while OpenAI says that Musk is ‘motivated by jealousy’ A trial between two of Silicon Valley’s biggest tycoons kicked off on Monday in California, the culmination of a years-long bitter feud. Elon Musk has accused Sam Altman of betraying the founding agreement of the non-profit they started together, OpenAI, by changing it to a for-profit enterprise. Jury selection began at a federal courthouse in Oakland with Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers presiding. As she began, she assured the dozens of prospective jurors that this trial wasn’t going to be highly technical, despite it centering around artificial intelligence. “This is just a case about promises and breaches of promises, it won’t get technical at all,” she said. Altman and Greg Brockman, the OpenAI president, were present for jury selection on Monday. Musk was not. The crux of Musk’s suit effectively accuses Altman of swindling him with the promise that OpenAI would operate as a non-profit entity focused on safety and open access to artificial intelligence. The suit alleges that once Altman and OpenAI secured Musk’s money and advanced its technology, the company “flippe