Shivon Zilis testimony exposes hidden dynamics inside the OpenAI-Musk feud — Check what she reveals
Central to the ongoing court battle is the testimony of Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member and the mother of four of Musk's children.Through leaked text messages and detailed court filings, Zilis has provided a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the tech industry's most high-profile feud. From Musk’s aggressive tactics to poach top AI talent for Tesla to the board's deep concerns ahead of the explosive ChatGPT launch, Zilis’s records paint a complex picture of competing interests and shifting loyalties.Here are key revelations from her testimony:People also askAI powered insights from this story•5 QUESTIONSShivon Zilis's testimony revealed that in 2018, Elon Musk planned to recruit several people from OpenAI to Tesla. She texted Musk asking for guidance on how to navigate the situation, and he responded that he preferred she 'stay close and friendly to OpenAI to keep info flowing' while Tesla would 'actively try to move three or four people'.Shivon Zilis testified that she resigned from the OpenAI board because Elon Musk, the father of her children, started a competitive AI effort at Tesla. This created a conflict of interest, as she felt there was 'nothing to be done' given his recruitment efforts from OpenAI.Shivon Zilis noted internal unrest within OpenAI before the ChatGPT launch, stating the board 'voiced extreme concern' about releasing the chatbot 'without any semblance of board communication.' She also indicated there were instances where she raised concerns about Sam Altman internally.Shivon Zilis firmly denied funneling information to Elon Musk while serving on the OpenAI board. She stated her role was to facilitate communication between parties to ensure maximal alignment.Shivon Zilis testified that Elon Musk considered recruiting Sam Altman to Tesla's board of directors around late 2017. This was part of an initiative to create a world-class AI lab at Tesla, although the plan for an AI lab at Tesla 'never got legs'.‘Do you prefer I stay close…?’According to court filings, cited by The Guardian, Shivon Zilis texted Musk in 2018, “Do you prefer I stay close and friendly to OpenAI to keep info flowing or begin to disassociate? Trust game is about to get tricky so any guidance on how to do right by you is appreciated.”“Close and friendly, but we are going to actively try to move three or four people from OpenAI to Tesla. More than that will join over time, but we won’t actively recruit them,” Musk responded, according to a report by The Guardian.‘My role is…’According to a report by The Guardian, when Musk left OpenAI’s board in February 2018, Zilis said, “They were kind of bad at speaking to each other.”She added, “My role historically had been to facilitate communication between all of the major parties to make a maximal alignment between them.”Zilis also testified that Sam Altman later invited her to join the board in 2020, and she accepted because she had “spent the last decade of my life wanting AI to go well for humanity.” When asked whether she funnelled information to Musk while serving on the board, she firmly denied it, responding, “Funnel? Certainly not.”‘When the father of your babies…’According to CNN, Zilis told a friend in text messages that she had to resign from the board because Musk’s “effort has become well known”.“When the father of your babies starts a competitive effort and will recruit out of OpenAI, there is nothing to be done,” Zilis wrote at the time in the messages entered as evidence.Tesla board seat for Altman?At one point, Elon Musk considered recruiting Sam Altman to serve on Tesla Inc.’s board of directors, jurors were told. According to Bloomberg, Shivon Zilis testified, “there was a time where that was on the table” around late 2017.The Bloomberg report said that Zilis was shown a 2017 email she wrote about an e
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