Musk casts himself as AI's good guy in testimony vs. OpenAI

Elon Musk portrayed himself in court this week as a leading advocate for AI safety — in contrast to what he described as the profit-consumed OpenAI that he's suing. Why it matters: Musk's self-portrait as a guardian of AI safety clashed with OpenAI's counterargument: that Musk was fine with a for-profit OpenAI when he thought he could control it. How the debate over Musk's motivations is resolved could be key to the outcome of the lawsuit the richest man in the world is waging against OpenAI. The big picture: Musk was the first witness in his lawsuit against Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, OpenAI and Microsoft. Under questioning from his own lawyer, Steven Molo, Musk argued that the only way to keep AI from "killing us all" was to keep it out of the hands of anyone trying to make money on it. He later acknowledged that his own AI company, xAI, is a for-profit. Musk was able to avoid elaborating since SpaceX recently acquired xAI and the rocket company is in an SEC quiet period ahead of a pl