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The trial between Elon Musk and Sam Altman has begun in California. It is the apotheosis of a bitter feud between the two tech titans, who founded OpenAI in 2015 as a nonprofit focused on developing AI ethically. Musk provided the initial funding but left in 2018 after a reported power struggle with Altman. Now he accuses Altman of abandoning OpenAI’s original mission by turning it into a for-profit company. He is seeking billions of dollars worth of “wrongful gains” as well as for Altman to be removed as CEO. He has cast the showdown as a “textbook tale of altruism versus greed”. But the lawsuit has been read by some observers as an effort by the world’s richest man to hobble an AI competitor which he has tried to buy on several occasions.
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