Event: U.S.

People wait to enter the U.S. District Courthouse in Oakland, California, on Monday. | Bloomberg The bitter legal fight between Elon Musk and the leading artificial intelligence firm, OpenAI, led by Sam Altman, may come down to a few pages in one executive's personal diary. "This is the only chance we have to get out from Elon," wrote Greg Brockman, OpenAI's president and a co-founder, in the fall of 2017. "Is he the ‘glorious leader’ that I would pick?”Brockman's diary entry is part of the thousands of pages of internal documents revealed in court since Musk, one of the original co-founders of OpenAI, sued the company, its chief executive Altman and Brockman in 2024. Jury selection was completed on Monday in ​the Oakland, California, federal court for a high-stakes trial over the future of OpenAI, known for the ChatGPT chatbot, and perhaps the future of artificial intelligence itself.Musk is seeking $150 billion in damages from ‌OpenAI and Microsoft, ‌one of its largest investors, according to a person involved in the case, with proceeds going to OpenAI’s charitable arm. He will try to convince the nine-person ​jury that Altman and Brockman conned him into investing in OpenAI, by straying from its founding mission as a nonprofit to focus on profit rather than helping society. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing, you can help us get the story right. SUBSCRIBE NOW

The trial’s outcome could sway the balance of power in AI, and jury selection starts on Monday.Technology tycoons Elon Musk and Sam Altman are poised to face off in a high-stakes trial revolving around the alleged betrayal, deceit and unbridled ambition that blurred the bickering billionaires’ once-shared vision for the development of artificial intelligence.The trial, which is scheduled to begin on Monday with jury selection, centres on the 2015 birth of ChatGPT maker OpenAI as a nonprofit start-up primarily funded by Musk before evolving into a capitalistic venture now valued at $852bn.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Canada’s Carney announces a sovereign wealth fundlist 2 of 4Will the Iran war push millions back into poverty?list 3 of 4Melania Trump blasts Kimmel, calls on ABC to ‘take stand’ against comedianlist 4 of 4US press gala shooting suspect charged with attempting to kill Trumpend of listThe trial’s outcome could sway the balance of power in AI, breakthrough technology that is increasingly being feared as a potential job killer and an existential threat to humanity’s survival.Those perceived risks are among the reasons that Musk, the world’s richest person, has cited for filing a lawsuit in August 2024 that will now be decided by a jury and US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California.The civil lawsuit accuses Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, and his top lieutenant and a cofounder, Greg Brockman, of double-crossing Musk by straying from the San Francisco company’s founding mission to be an altruistic steward of a revolutionary technology. The lawsuit alleges they shifted OpenAI into moneymaking mode behind his back.The bitter legal fight may come down to a few pages in one executive’s personal diary.“This is the only chance we have to get out from Elon,” wrote Brockman in the autumn of 2017. “Is he the ‘glorious leader’…