In the second week of Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI, co-founder Greg Brockman testified on May 5 that when Musk left OpenAI's board in 2018, he told employees in an all-hands meeting that he would pursue AI at Tesla, "not spending time on safety." Musk said his primary goal was catching up to Google DeepMind. He added: "If the sheep are making safety rules and the wolves are unconstrained, then there's no point." Yet in his lawsuit, Musk's core argument is that OpenAI abandoned its safety mission.
Brockman also revealed that Musk had several OpenAI employees work unpaid for months on Tesla's Autopilot team, helping rebuild its technology. During his first week on the stand, Musk repeatedly emphasized the time and resources he poured into OpenAI — but never mentioned this reverse talent grab.