Musk calls himself ‘a fool’ on the stand as OpenAI’s lawyer dismantles his nonprofit narrative

The tense day three of Musk v. Altman saw OpenAI’s lead attorney William Savitt use Musk’s own emails, pledge shortfalls, and Shivon Zilis texts to argue the lawsuit is a competitive grievance dressed as a charitable principle.

Elon Musk called himself “a fool” for funding OpenAI, accused its leadership of “looting the nonprofit,” and clashed repeatedly with the company’s lawyer in a tense cross-examination in Oakland federal court on Wednesday.

The day’s proceedings. day three of the four-week trial of Musk v. Altman, were the most combative yet, as OpenAI’s lead trial attorney William Savitt methodically tried to turn Musk’s donations, emails, and personal relationships against his own charitable trust argument.

“I gave them $38 million of essentially free funding, which they then used to create an $800 billion for-profit company,” Musk told the jury. “I actually was a fool who created free funding ...