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Judge: "This trial is not an AI safety case"... Musk's side checked on AI fear-mongering
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, who filed a lawsuit claiming damages because OpenAI broke its non-profit promise, said he did not carefully review the commercialization documents sent by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Musk, CEO, took the stand for the third day at the trial held on the 30th (local time) at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Oakland Division. In response to a question from William Savitt, a lawyer representing OpenAI, asking if he had reviewed the documents sent by CEO Altman in August 2017, Musk said, "I only looked at the title and didn't read the fine print," Reuters and CNBC reported.
The documents stated that OpenAI would transition from a non-profit organization to a for-profit entity overseen by a non-profit organization.
Savitt pointed out that OpenAI personnel had sent emails to CEO Musk multiple times discussing transitioning their technology to private and generating profit from it, arguing that CEO Musk was aware of the commercialization plan.
However, CEO Musk countered, "Altman reassured me that OpenAI would remain non-profit."
Savitt also pressed CEO Musk, who criticizes OpenAI's transition from a non-profit organization to a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) capable of pursuing profit, on the fact that xAI, which he founded, transitioned from a PBC to a general corporation.
CEO Musk responded, "From my perspective, a Public Benefit Corporation and a general corporation are essentially the same."
He then admitted that xAI has not yet released its AI models as open-source, as he has advocated.
CEO Musk also expressed frustration when Savitt repeatedly interrupted his answers, saying, "If you keep interrupting me, I cannot give a complete answer."
During his testimony that day, he also stated that Tesla, which he leads, has no intention of developing Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) with intelligence equal to or greater than humans in all aspects.
He replied, "Tesla's AI is for autonomous vehicles, different from a massive AI model that can answer any question."
However, OpenAI presented his X (formerly Twitter) post from last month in court, where he stated, 'Tesla will be one of the companies developing AGI.'
Musk also testified in response to a question about whether Tesla is building a 'robot army,' saying, "We don't make any weapons," and "If we were to build robots en masse, we would need to ensure they are safe and that a 'Terminator-like' situation does not occur."
On that day, Musk's side requested permission for an AI expert to testify, arguing that the jury should be informed of the risks that AI could lead to human extinction or climate catastrophe, but Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is presiding over the trial, denied the request.
Judge Rogers emphasized, "This trial is not about AI risks." She added, "The core issues are breach of public trust and unjust enrichment."
Judge Rogers criticized CEO Musk's founding of xAI while simultaneously advocating for AI risks as "ironic," stating, "I imagine many people would not want to put the future of humanity in Mr. Musk's hands, but that is not relevant (in this trial). We will not be discussing such matters."
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