Photo by Muhammed Selim Korkutata/Anadolu via Getty Images
America’s Founders and Adam Smith knew better than to entrust the future to philosopher-kings.
A judge tossed Elon Musk’s $150 billion lawsuit against OpenAI’s Sam Altman this week after the jury determined that the Tesla CEO waited too long to file his claim. Mr. Musk said the verdict was decided on a “calendar technicality” and vowed to appeal, so perhaps this courtroom battle over artificial-intelligence supremacy isn’t over.
Essentially, Mr. Musk sued Mr. Altman for being deceitful. The two teamed up to create a nonprofit AI lab in 2015, and Mr. Musk contributed most of the capital. At some point, Mr. Altman and Greg Brockman, another co-founder, changed their minds and decided to make OpenAI a for-profit enterprise. “There is no question to anyone following the case in detail that Altman & Brockman did in fact enrich themselves by stealing a charity,” Mr. Musk tweeted after Monday’s verdict. “The only question is WHEN they did it!”
Mr. Altman was briefly ousted as CEO in 2023 after the board determined that he “was not consistently candid in his communications.” Within a week, however, he was reinstated, and several directors who had voted to remove him left the board. Mr Altman’s alleged dishonesty was likewise central to Mr. Musk’s case. During cross-examination, Mr. Musk’s lawyer, Steven Molo, asked Mr. Altman if he was “completely trustworthy.” He replied: “I believe so.”
Continue reading the entire piece here at the Wall Street Journal (paywall)
______________________
Jason L. Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, and a Fox News commentator. Follow him on Twitter here.