Elon Musk took the stand in his lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman and opened not with legal arguments but with biography: South Africa, a Canadian border crossing with $2,500 in travelers checks, Zip2, PayPal, and a long walk through every company he has built since.
The strategy is deliberate. Musk is the world's wealthiest person suing a nonprofit he co-founded. The jury needs a reason to see him as something other than a billionaire with a grudge. His answer is to frame his entire career, including his role founding OpenAI, as a mission to protect humanity rather than accumulate power or capital.
The full testimony reveals how Musk constructs that argument in detail, what specific claims he makes about Altman's conduct, and how Altman's legal team responds. The origin story is the setup. The substance is worth reading.
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