Jury selection started Monday in San Francisco federal court for the lawsuit Elon Musk filed against Sam Altman and OpenAI over what he claims are broken promises about the organization's nonprofit mission. The legal battle, which has been grinding through pre-trial motions for more than a year, is finally headed to a jury - and seating one is proving difficult.
The problem: a significant share of prospective jurors walked in with strong negative opinions about Musk already formed. The Verge's Elizabeth Lopatto, reporting from the courtroom, described the mood with a phrase that came up repeatedly during selection - "people don't like him." That's a real complication for Musk's legal team. Attorneys for Altman and OpenAI have argued throughout the case that the lawsuit is driven by competitive resentment rather than any genuine concern about nonprofit governance. Musk left OpenAI's board in 2018 and went on to found his own AI company, xAI, which now competes directly with OpenAI on multiple fronts.
At the center of the case is OpenAI's shift from a nonprofit structure to one where its for-profit arm holds increasing control over the organization. Musk argues that shift broke the founding commitments he agreed to when he donated to OpenAI. The company says the restructuring was necessary to raise the capital required to build competitive AI systems.
The outcome matters beyond the two people on the marquee. A ruling that OpenAI violated its founding agreements could complicate the company's ongoing restructuring, which involves raising billions in new investment. For the many millions of people using ChatGPT daily, nothing changes immediately - but a court-imposed change to OpenAI's governance could affect what it builds and how it prices its products over the coming years.