Musk’s star witness reveals all: Tesla AI lab, OpenAI talent raid, and poaching Sam Altman

Elon Musk’s key witness took the stand once again in the landmark trial between OpenAI executives and the xAI chief, revealing the billionaire's inner workings and his beastly drive to win the artificial intelligence (AI) race.

Former OpenAI board member and mother of Musk’s children, Shivon Zilis, appeared in court in Oakland, California, where she was cross-examined by OpenAI’s lawyer, Sarah Eddy.

Eddy was described examining the witness in a “deceptively soothing voice,” according to the MIT Technology Review, seemingly designed to make Zilis drop her guard and lull her into a false sense of security.

OpenAI’s attorney asked whether Zilis had acted as a vehicle for Musk to poach OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman.

While Musk was still a board member at OpenAI, he attempted to recruit Altman to lead Tesla’s future AI lab.

Another OpenAI co-founder, Andrej Karpathy, was asked “to send a list of top OpenAI people to poach,” according to a text message from Zilis.

Musk had messaged the soon-to-be mother of his children, claiming that OpenAI would be no match for TeslaAI if he started working on it.

The Tesla CEO didn’t manage to poach any OpenAI talent, nor persuade Altman to lead the non-existent Tesla AI lab.

Upon examination of witnesses and evidence, OpenAI argues that Musk is only suing its rival to weaken its position in the AI race.

When asked who she was loyal to while she was working for both Musk and Altman, Zilis told the jury that she only had allegiance to “the best outcome for AI for humanity.”

This is likely to be the last time Zilis will need to testify in court, as Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, is expected to take the stand.

The Microsoft boss has been called to testify due to OpenAI and Microsoft’s six-year partnership, which “unjustly enriched” the pair, according to Business Insider.

Nadella will seemingly be put on the stand to defend Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI, explaining to jurors that neither he nor the company believes that they had any duties to Musk following his $38 million investment in OpenAI.

Once all of the key witnesses have testified, OpenAI and Musk can make their closing arguments, which could be done as soon as this week, BI journalists report.

The jury will then begin deliberations the following week and provide a tentative verdict, which could come as soon as this week.

The judge will then decide the outcome, which will reportedly be announced in mid to late May.

Who is Shivon Zilis?

Musk’s key witness might seem an unlikely character to rely on, seeing that she was proverbially sleeping with the enemy during her time in Silicon Valley.

While many people know her mainly as a board member of OpenAI, she was a venture capitalist for roughly 7 years before joining Musk’s companies, Tesla and Neuralink.

She was the director of Musk’s telepathy product Neuralink, which aims to help those with neurodegenerative diseases like Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS), as well as project director for Tesla.

The pair seemingly took AI to the next level as Zilis was (presumably) artificially inseminated with Musk’s sperm.

Despite working for Musk and becoming a board member for OpenAI, Zilis claimed in court that her “personal connection” with Musk didn’t impact her role at the Altman-led AI company.

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