Sam Altman on Tuesday came under fierce grilling from Elon Musk’s lead trial attorney in an increasingly awkward courtroom exchange that saw the OpenAI CEO confronted with allegations of lying and deception.
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Musk’s attorney, Steven Molo, opened his cross-examination of Altman with the blunt question: “Are you completely trustworthy?”
“I believe so,” Altman told the federal California jury in the civil trial of Musk’s lawsuit against Altman and OpenAI.
“You don’t know whether you’re completely trustworthy?” Molo followed up, forcing Altman to respond, “I’ll just amend my answer to yes.”
Molo then peppered Altman with questions about whether the billionaire chief executive tells the truth, lies to advance his business interests, or misleads the people he works with.
“I believe I am an honest and trustworthy business person,” Altman testified.
Musk has accused Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman of tricking him into financially backing OpenAI as a nonprofit research lab, only to turn it into a for-profit worth more than $800 billion.
During more than three hours of testimony as a defendant and marquee witness, Altman began on the offensive, attacking Musk as keen to take control of the company in 2017 — even from beyond the grave, by passing it on to his children.
But under cross-examination by Musk’s attorney, Molo, Altman’s convivial, meandering tone began to slip. His answers to a range of combative questions — in which Molo accused him of lies, bribery, and “stealing a charity” — became clipped and rapid.
Typical terse responses included, “I don’t recall” and “I don’t accept that characterization.” “I can’t say how other people think,” he snapped back when confronted with some of the negative criticism from board members that led to his brief 2023 ouster from OpenAI.
Molo told Altman that he’s been repeatedly called “deceptive and a liar,” pointing to previous testimony from former OpenAI insiders like Mira Murati and Tasha McCauley.
“She accused you of creating a toxic culture of lying in OpenAI,” Molo said, referring to McCauley. “You’re aware of that, aren’t you?”
Altman said he wasn’t aware of “those words” and added he did “not hear” McCauley’s testimony in the case.
“Is it important to you to find out what’s going on in this trial?” Molo questioned Altman, who responded: “Yes, although I have a very busy day job and have not been able to be here every day.”
“I certainly care about this trial,” Altman said.
At another point, Molo asked Altman about a 2022 New Yorker story in which Musk had derided news of Microsoft’s $10 billion investment in OpenAI. In a text exchange with Altman soon after the story ran, Musk called the investment a “bait and switch,” implying OpenAI had parlayed his seed money into a giant payday.
“He’s saying essentially that you stole the charity, right?” Molo demanded.
“It doesn’t look like that’s what he’s saying to me,” Altman answered.
In the text exchange, Altman told Musk, “I agree this feels bad,” and then offered Musk equity in OpenAI. “You offered him a bribe didn’t you?” Molo demanded.
“I don’t accept any of that characterization,” Altman answered.
In other questioning, Molo cited Musk’s claims accusing Altman of “lying” about his commitment to OpenAI’s founding mission as a nonprofit.
“I don’t know if he has accused me of lying or not being committed to that mission,” Altman said, prompting Molo to respond: “Did you read this lawsuit?”
“Many, many versions of it, sir,” Altman responded.
