Two days before the Elon Musk v. OpenAI trial began last week, Musk sent a text message to Greg Brockman, president and co-founder of the model maker. Musk suggested to Brockman that OpenAI settle the case.
The exchange went off the rails when Brockman responded by suggesting that both sides drop the case, with Musk responding: “By the end of this week, you and Sam will be the most hated men in America. If you insist, you will be.”
That’s what a new application filed by OpenAI’s lawyers on Sunday says. The filing did not include a copy of the exchange of documents, and was mostly devoted to convincing the judge why the exchange regarding the settlement negotiations should be admitted as evidence. But the judge didn’t buy that, ruling that the exchange was inadmissible, according to Tim Fernholz, a TechCrunch reporter who was on the scene covering the trial.
But the implications are clear. Musk’s lawsuit seeks to eliminate OpenAI’s commercial structure, make its technology available to the public, strip it of its licensing agreement with Microsoft, and force OpenAI to pay general damages, punitive damages and attorney’s fees. After OpenAI’s lawyers publicly shared this “settlement or no-settlement” document, observers quickly noted that the case was not about Musk’s concerns about the safety of AI, but rather about forcing his rivals to kneel while demanding money from its success. This is essentially what OpenAI’s counterclaim alleges.
Meanwhile, the trial continues.
