Slashdot

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Brockman Rebuts Musk's Take On Startup's History, Recounts Secret Work For Tesla

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: OpenAI President Greg Brockman concluded his testimony on Tuesday, where he largely rebutted Elon Musk's account of the early years of the startup and negotiations that occurred at the company. Brockman testified that he never made any commitments to Musk about the company's corporate structure, and he never heard anyone else make them. He emphasized that OpenAI is still governed by a nonprofit. "This entity remains a nonprofit," Brockman said, referring to the OpenAI foundation. "It is the best-resourced nonprofit in the world." [...] Brockman, who spoke from the witness stand in federal court in Oakland, California, over the course of two days, also revealed that Musk had enlisted several OpenAI employees to do months of free work for him at Tesla, Musk's electric vehicle company. That work mainly included efforts to overhaul the company's approach to developing self-driving technology as part of the Autopilot team there in 2017. During his two days on the stand, Brockman answered questions about his personal financial ambitions, his understanding of OpenAI's structure and Musk's involvement at the company, which they co-founded with other executives in 2015.

In Musk's testimony last week, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO said that the time, money and resources he poured into OpenAI had been integral to the company's success. He repeatedly said that he helped recruit the company's top talent. Brockman said Tuesday that while Musk was helpful in convincing some employees to take the leap to join OpenAI, he was a polarizing figure for others. "Elon had a reputation of being an extremely hard driver," Brockman said. He added that "certain candidates were very attracted" by Musk's involvement at OpenAI, and that "certain candidates were very turned off." Musk testified last week that a former OpenAI researcher named Andrej Karpathy joined Tesla, but only after he had planned to leave the startup already. Brockman said that Musk, after he hired Karpathy, approached him with "an apology and a confession," about the hire, and that neither Musk nor Karpathy had told him the researcher planned to leave OpenAI before that. Musk was generally not very available for meetings and conversations, Brockman said, so he relied on employees, including Sam Teller and former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis, as proxies. Brockman testified that open sourcing OpenAI's technology was "not a topic of conversation" during Musk's time with the nonprofit, despite Musk's claims that it was supposed to be central to the organization. He also described tense 2017 negotiations over a possible for-profit arm, saying Musk became angry when equity stakes were discussed. "He said Musk declined the proposal during an in-person meeting, then tore a painting of a Tesla Model 3 car off the wall, and began storming out of the room," reports CNBC. He also demanded to know when the cofounders would leave the company.

Brockman further said Musk wanted control of OpenAI because he disliked situations where he lacked control, citing Zip2 and SolarCity as examples Musk had raised. He also testified that Musk partly wanted control to help fund his broader SpaceX ambition of building a "city on Mars."

CNBC notes the trial will resume at 8:30 a.m. PT on Wednesday, with Shivon Zilis expected to testify. She is the mother of four of Musk's children and a former OpenAI board member.

Recap:

OpenAI President Discloses His Stake In the Company Is Worth $30 Billion (Day Five)
Musk Concludes Testimony At OpenAI Trial (Day Four)
Elon Musk Says OpenAI Betrayed Him, Clashes With Company's Attorney (Day Three)
Musk Testifies OpenAI Was Created As Nonprofit To Counter Google (Day Two)
Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Head To Court (Day One)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Found Photograph

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Found Photograph

You Used to Call Home

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

You Used to Call Home

ajpscs posted a photo:

the SQUARE
TOKYO DAY WALK
© ajpscs

Concrete Concourse

Greg Adams Photography posted a photo:

Concrete Concourse

Packard Factory, Detroit, 2018

ajpscs has added a photo to the pool:

the SQUARE
TOKYO DAY WALK
© ajpscs

The Guardian

Latest news, sport, business, comment, analysis and reviews from the Guardian, the world's leading liberal voice

‘Stuck in the mud’: one year on, Friedrich Merz struggles to find his footing

Just 19% of Germans approve of the chancellor’s leadership – with some of his comments causing offence amid spats with the White House

Friedrich Merz’s first steps as German chancellor proved to be a stumble and, one year on, he is still struggling to find his footing at the helm of Europe’s top economy and most populous country, with support at historic lows and the far right poised to pounce.

The conservative Christian Democrat took office on 6 May 2025 after a humiliating loss in the first round of voting in parliament. It raised doubts, right from the start, about the stability of his coalition government with the Social Democrats.

Continue reading...

‘Planbaar? Dat is een schijn­werkelijkheid. Een groot deel van de zwangerschappen is onbedoeld’

Bij vrouwen die onbedoeld zwanger raken, speelt schaamte vaak een grote rol. Er wordt „gehamerd op de eigen verantwoordelijkheid van de vrouw, alsof ze het gemakkelijk had kunnen voorkomen.”


Een kat in het weiland is een wandelende stressfactor voor de grutto

Katten die in weides bivakkeren halen drie kwart van hun dieet uit het wild. Bijvoorbeeld gruttokuikens. In Friesland brengen ecologen kattengedrag in kaart. Hun baasjes zijn „vaak verbaasd hoe ver hun kat loopt”.


Rijnmond - Nieuws

Het laatste nieuws van vandaag over Rotterdam, Feyenoord, het verkeer en het weer in de regio Rijnmond

Het weer van vandaag: droog en later wat zon

Het weer ziet er vandaag niet verkeerd uit in onze regio. De dag begint bewolkt, maar het blijft droog. In de loop van de dag breekt de zon wat vaker door. De middagtemperatuur komt uit op ongeveer 15 graden, wat aan de koele kant is voor de tijd van het jaar.