Elon Musk is in the middle of a multi-billion-dollar lawsuit alleging that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman violated the company’s principles by pursuing profitability. A new document in the case, filed Monday by OpenAI’s counsel, shows that he tried to put an end to it before it began. Per the filing, Musk sent a text to Brockman two days before the trial was set to begin to try to secure a settlement.
On April 25, Musk allegedly sent Brockman a text that was meant (according to a description from the defendant’s attorneys) to gauge interest in a potential settlement. Brockman apparently responded to the message with the suggestion that both sides of the case drop their claims. Musk responded, “By the end of this week, you and
Sam will be the most hated men in America. If you insist, so it will be.”
OpenAI’s representatives said they “do not intend to introduce a screenshot of the exchange into evidence,” so we’re stuck going off their description of the exchange. It seems the plan is to introduce the text into evidence so that they can ask Brockman about it when he takes the witness stand to testify.
OpenAI’s filing did include some context, less about this case and more about Musk’s modus operandi. It included a similar settlement “threat” made during litigation over his bid to acquire Twitter and subsequent failed attempt to get out of the deal. That, OpenAI argued, “tends to prove motive and bias, and, in particular, that Mr. Musk’s motivation in pursuing this lawsuit is to attack a competitor and its principals.” They argued the settlement offer, paired with a threat to make Altman and Brockman “the most hated men in America,” was “coercive rather than conciliatory.”
Altman and Brockman aren’t exactly popular (well, Brockman isn’t really known to most of the public), but Musk has a real uphill climb in trying to make them more hated than himself. A YouGov poll from earlier this year found that 56% of the general public held unfavorable views of Musk, compared to 34% who had positive associations with the oligarch. It’s not clear that spending much of last week testifying will help Musk’s image among those who are paying attention. He repeatedly lost his cool and revealed that at least some of his public bluster about his companies is little more than smoke and mirrors.
That’s not to say Altman is beloved in comparison to Musk, seeing as a Tech Oversight poll conducted last year found 50% of people have a negative view of OpenAI’s CEO. Altman also typically doesn’t do himself many favors when speaking publicly—it turns out most people don’t have fond feelings when a rich guy coldly says things like “I expect some really bad stuff to happen because of the technology” and then continues to develop the technology. But it seems like the best case here for Musk is that he wins a very South Park-ian Giant Douche vs. Turd Sandwich-style popularity contest.
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