At his OpenAI trial, Musk relitigates an old friendship

· ai · Source ↗

TLDR

  • Musk testified under oath that a falling out with Larry Page over AI safety was a core reason he co-founded OpenAI.

Key Facts

  • Musk says Page dismissed concerns about AI wiping out humanity as “fine” and called Musk a “speciest” for being pro-human.
  • The two were once close enough that Musk regularly slept at Page’s Palo Alto home; Fortune listed them as secretly best-friend business leaders in 2016.
  • When Musk recruited Google AI star Ilya Sutskever to help launch OpenAI in 2015, Page felt betrayed and cut off contact.
  • Musk told this story to biographer Walter Isaacson before; Tuesday’s testimony was the first time under oath.

Why It Matters

  • The testimony reframes OpenAI’s founding as partly driven by a personal rift, not only a mission argument.
  • Page has not commented, and the account was given in service of an active lawsuit.

Connie Loizos, TechCrunch · 2026-04-29 · Read the original

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