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.
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.
Molo told Altman that he’s been repeatedly called “deceptive and a liar” by people he’s done business with as the attorney pointed 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.
In his line of 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.
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