The Industry

Elon Musk Is Probably Going to Lose the OpenAI Case

But he’s not doing this to win.

Vicki Behringer/Reuters

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A new scale of humiliation ritual kicked off this week as Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI went to trial in Silicon Valley. The Tesla CEO, who co-founded OpenAI, is suing the artificial intelligence firm and two of its other co-founders, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, for diverting from its original nonprofit goal of developing A.I. for the public good in favor of for-profit motives.

“This lawsuit is very simple: It is not OK to steal a charity,” Musk said on the witness stand on Tuesday.

The trial is big by every conceivable measure. Both Musk and OpenAI have mustered high-dollar legal armies who are prepared to wage potentially years of litigation, including this federal trial.…