Elon Musk says Google co‑founder Larry Page loves robots as much as people, accusing him of calling him a ‘specieist’

(SeaPRwire) –   Elon Musk offered a dramatic start to his testimony in the lawsuit against OpenAI. Testifying on Tuesday afternoon at a federal courthouse in Oakland, the globe’s wealthiest man reportedly informed the nine-person jury that artificial intelligence “could kill us all,” while referencing James Cameron’s Terminator as a negative AI outcome and Star Trek as a positive one.

He also attributed the entire narrative of OpenAI to a single insult he claims Google co-founder Larry Page once directed at him: “specieist.”

The trial, slated to last roughly four weeks, revolves around Musk’s 2024 lawsuit alleging that OpenAI abandoned its founding non-profit mission “for the benefit of all mankind.” Musk helped establish the lab in 2015 with Sam Altman after the pair spent weeks discussing their concerns about AI being controlled by profit-driven conglomerates, specifically Google. However, by 2017, the group determined that constructing advanced AI would demand more capital than a non-profit could generate, leading to discussions about adopting a for-profit model. Musk, who had given at least $38 million to the lab, desired the CEO role and majority control, but felt cheated after a power struggle with Altman over the position. He subsequently left in 2018.

Following the 2022 release of ChatGPT, which transformed OpenAI into a company worth approximately $730 billion, Musk filed suit, claiming that Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman had misappropriated a charitable organization. He is pursuing over $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft.

OpenAI’s legal team presents a somewhat contrasting account. In his opening statement, lead counsel William Savitt told the jury that Musk had merely lost a power struggle and was currently harboring “sour grapes,” especially since Musk now operates his own for-profit AI firm, xAI. “My clients had the audacity to proceed and succeed without him,” Savitt stated. “Mr. Musk was not pleased with that.”

Musk’s account of AI’s history

However, while on the stand, Musk took the jury back ten years, to when he and Altman schemed to prevent AI from falling “into the hands of the bad guys.”

He testified that these AI concerns became concrete during a 2015 meeting with Page, where the Google co-founder forecasted that AI would result in a utopia. Musk was concerned that Page was not treating the dangers with sufficient seriousness; according to Musk, Page retaliated by calling him a “specieist”—a person who prefers humans to the digital beings of the future.

“The only reason OpenAI exists is that Larry Page called me a ‘specieist,’” Musk stated to the court.

He continued to describe a somewhat binary view of AI’s future, drawing from popular culture. “We do not want a ‘Terminator’ result,” he said. “We want a Gene Roddenberry-style result, like ‘Star Trek.’ Not a James Cameron film like ‘Terminator.’”

Musk also spoke about Neuralink, his brain-chip venture, defining its objective as “AI safety” achieved through “AI-human symbiosis,” and referred to SpaceX as “life insurance for life as we know it.”

Yet, although he portrays himself in court as a defender of charitable contributions in the U.S., public filings show that his foundation, the Musk Foundation, has not distributed the legally required 5% of its assets for four consecutive years. The jury has been requested to put aside their opinions of Musk to decide the case.

Musk is set to return to the stand on Wednesday morning for cross-examination by OpenAI’s attorneys.