Elon Musk returned to the witness stand on Wednesday to continue testimony in his legal battle against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, according to Wired.com. Under cross-examination, OpenAI’s lawyers presented emails showing how Musk attempted to gain control of the organization during a 2017 power struggle.
According to emails from September 2017 shown in court, Musk demanded the right to choose four members of OpenAI’s board of directors, giving him more voting power than his cofounders, who would have three in total. “I would unequivocally have initial control of the company, but this will change quickly,” Musk wrote in one message, per Wired.com. Researcher Ilya Sutskever rejected the proposal, fearing it would give Musk too much power.
Months before these negotiations, Musk had stopped making $5 million quarterly payments to OpenAI that he had been sending since 2016 as part of a $1 billion pledge, according to Wired.com. This halt was particularly difficult for OpenAI as Musk was then its main funding source.
TechCrunch.com reports that Musk testified he had discussed converting OpenAI to a for-profit as early as 2016 and explored creating a for-profit arm in 2017 where he would hold majority equity. When those plans fell apart, he stopped regular donations, though he continued paying for office space until 2020, according to TechCrunch.com.
Musk’s lawsuit alleges that Altman and co-founders tricked him into backing a nonprofit before launching a for-profit arm, per TechCrunch.com.