Musk v. Altman week 1: Musk says he was duped, warns AI could kill us all, and admits that xAI distills OpenAI’s models

Week one of the Musk v. Altman federal trial in Oakland saw Elon Musk testify that he was deceived into funding OpenAI, believing it would remain a nonprofit dedicated to safe AI development. He described three phases of trust erosion, culminating in learning about Microsoft's $10 billion investment. OpenAI's lawyer William Savitt aggressively cross-examined Musk, presenting emails showing he poached OpenAI employees for Tesla and Neuralink, and arguing Musk's lawsuit is motivated by competitive interests rather than altruism. A courtroom bombshell came when Musk admitted xAI 'partly' distills OpenAI's models to train Grok — a practice OpenAI itself has condemned when done by competitors like DeepSeek. Musk is seeking to remove Altman and Brockman and unwind OpenAI's for-profit restructuring, a move that could derail the company's path to a near-$1 trillion IPO.