With a trial between Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman a week away, records of the two men's past conversations have been released.
The Washington Post (WP) reported on the 23rd (local time) that text messages, emails and diaries exchanged among Musk, Altman and key Silicon Valley figures were filed with the court during the lawsuit between the two sides.
The materials also included a text from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressing support for Musk. In Feb. last year, Zuckerberg told Musk, "It looks like the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is making progress," and added, "I told my team to be on alert to remove doxxing or threatening content targeting your team. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help."
At the time, as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) pushed for mass layoffs of federal officials, criticism intensified, and after some employees' personal information was exposed, Musk strongly pushed back.
Another set of materials also showed that Altman once sent Musk a message calling him "my hero" and sought advice from people around him on whether to post praise for him.
Content in which Musk spoke disparagingly of Jeff Bezos was also made public. In a 2016 email exchange with Altman, Musk said he preferred to work with Microsoft rather than Amazon, called Bezos "an idiot," and noted that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was not. OpenAI later formed a partnership to use Microsoft's cloud computing services and received a $1 billion investment.
There was also a claim that Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis acted as a spy providing OpenAI information. Zilis texted Musk, asking for guidance: "Do you want me to maintain a close and friendly relationship with OpenAI so I can keep getting (information), or do you want me to cut ties?" Zilis is also known as the person who gave birth, via in vitro fertilization, to four of Musk's children.
With even private conversations being disclosed as evidence, observers say the lawsuit will intensify. Andrew Stolman, a corporations dispute attorney, told WP that fireworks are expected in court and "things are going to get messy and ugly."
Musk co-founded OpenAI but left the board in 2018. He later filed suit, saying OpenAI violated its nonprofit principles to pursue profit and reaped unjust gains. More recently, through an amended complaint, he has sought the ouster of Altman and President Greg Brockman.