May 11 (Reuters) – Former OpenAI Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever said on Monday his ownership stake in the artificial intelligence startup is worth about $7 billion, as he testified in a legal fight between Elon Musk and OpenAI.
• The trial could determine the future of OpenAI, which spearheaded widespread use of AI with its ChatGPT chatbot and has been raising billions of dollars from investors to build out its computing power ahead of a potential trillion-dollar IPO.
• Musk is seeking fundamental changes to the governance of the company as well as $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, one of its largest investors.
• During his testimony in a California courtroom, Sutskever said he had been thinking about taking action to remove co-founder Sam Altman as OpenAI CEO for at least one year prior to his November 2023 board vote.
• Altman’s conduct, including undermining and pitting executives against one another, was “not conducive to any grand goal”, including the creation of safe AGI, Sutskever said.
• Sutskever played a key role in Altman’s dramatic firing and rehiring in November 2023. At the time, he was on OpenAI’s board and helped orchestrate Altman’s firing.
• Sutskever left OpenAI in 2024 and has since launched an AI startup called Safe Superintelligence.
• Earlier on Monday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took the stand, characterizing the tech giant’s investment in OpenAI as a “calculated risk.”
• Nadella emphasized that Microsoft considered its early investments to be worthwhile for marketing benefits.
• Former and current OpenAI executives, including President Greg Brockman, Mira Murati and Shivon Zilis have already testified in the trial.
• Musk has testified that he knew about early discussions around turning OpenAI into a for-profit company but was reassured by Altman it would remain a nonprofit.
(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
Comments