Musk Admits xAI Distills OpenAI Models in Oakland Trial — SkimNews
SkimNews Take
The courtroom's focus on technical and financial evidence, rather than direct testimony on original intent, suggests the legal battle may pivot on interpreting founding documents through a modern lens of AI's commercial potential.
Get the Tech newsletter
Daily tech — startups, AI labs, chips, the launches that shape the next decade. Free.
- Elon Musk testified in a crisp black suit in Oakland federal court, arguing that OpenAI breached its charitable trust by pivoting to a for-profit after he helped fund it around 2015; his primary remedy is unwinding OpenAI's October 2025 restructuring deal with the California and Delaware attorneys general.
- On day four of cross-examination, Musk admitted xAI distills OpenAI's models to train its own, calling it "standard practice" across AI labs — a revelation that sent reporters in the gallery typing furiously.
- The judge pushed back sharply when a Musk lawyer warned "we could all die as a result of AI," pointing out that Musk himself runs a competing AI company, and later told the court the trial is "not about whether or not artificial intelligence has damaged humanity."
- Musk and Mark Zuckerberg were revealed via text messages to be coordinating a bid to purchase all assets of OpenAI's nonprofit and to block its restructuring — undermining Musk's claim that he was blindsided by OpenAI's for-profit shift.
- Greg Brockman is expected to testify next week alongside Ilya Sutskever, Mira Murati, Satya Nadella, and UC Berkeley's Stuart Russell on AI safety; the trial is set to run roughly three weeks before nine jurors deliver an advisory verdict to the judge.
- Musk's suit targets OpenAI just as the company reportedly plans an IPO this year, meaning even a partial win could derail or restructure that offering.
Why it matters: Musk is asking a federal judge to unwind OpenAI's October 2025 restructuring — negotiated with the California and Delaware AGs — just as OpenAI reportedly prepares an IPO this year, so any partial win could force structural changes to the offering. The xAI distillation admission and the Musk-Zuckerberg texts surfaced in court directly undercut Musk's central claim that he didn't know about OpenAI's for-profit pivot until 2022.
Ask SkimNews
