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Adi Robertson

Adi Robertson

Senior Editor, Tech & Policy

Senior Editor, Tech & Policy

    More From Adi Robertson

    Adi Robertson
    Adi Robertson
    It’s orbin’ time.

    Jared Leto’s band Thirty Seconds to Mars is (for real, this time?) using Sam Altman’s World eye-scanning orb to stop bots, reports The San Francisco Standard:

    So does Leto have a World ID?

    “That’s a really good question. I actually don’t know,” Sada said.

    Adi Robertson
    Adi Robertson
    Toner is relating how Sam Altman’s firing happened.

    She says the starting point was Sutskever reaching out to have a conversation where he expressed serious concerns about Altman. It was a “pattern of behavior” that included issues with “honesty and candor” that led to the firing, not any one action. Toner has already laid out some of this in a 2024 podcast, and it’s similar to Murati’s testimony.

    Adi Robertson
    Adi Robertson
    Elon Musk’s expert doesn’t follow him on X.

    And he thinks posts are still called tweets. (The post is about AI creating so much wealth that “everyone can have a penthouse if they want.”) We’re getting some meandering analysis of AI creating prosperity, but even the judge seems frustrated at this point.

    Adi Robertson
    Adi Robertson
    Individual vs. systemic risk.

    Russell is asked next about risk. He starts with individual risk, including algorithmic discrimination, which he says is “much more widespread” than people expect. He also mentions the possibility of AI systems reinforcing “delusional beliefs” — like, in his example, “Vladimir Putin is an alien.” Then there’s systemic risk — like AI systems taking jobs at a large scale. Russell mentions computer science students having trouble getting work already, and he expects it will accelerate.

    As Russell keeps going, the opposition lawyer objects that this is speculative, and Judge Gonzalez Rogers asks to move on — which Musk’s lawyer does by promptly asking again about jobs. Another objection is sustained, and Russell starts talking about people using AI to magnify harm, like cyberattacks. He mentions Mythos, and the opposition lawyer gets it stricken from the record as outside the scope. None of this particularly relates to OpenAI so far — it’s basically a generic overview of AI risks, which Musk has been focusing on as central to the trial, despite some limits from YGR. And we’ve already run through 20 minutes of the 30 allotted for direct testimony.

    Adi Robertson
    Adi Robertson
    Stuart Russell is here to tell us about AI.

    Russell is first asked about the positive aspects of AI — he mentions medical technology and AlphaFold, which can predict protein structures. Also mentions Waymo self-driving cars, which he describes as “extremely safe.” There can also be “broad economic benefits” where systems can be used to develop software, “where the AI can actually write software much faster and cheaper than human beings.”

    Adi Robertson
    Adi Robertson
    “I need that today. That’s good. I like that.”

    Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers says she got some “May the 4th be with you” jokes from her kids today as we get started. Apparently she appreciated them. After that, the day kicks off with expert testimony from computer scientist Stuart Russell.

    All the evidence revealed so far in Musk v. Altman

    Emails going as far back as 2015 give a glimpse into the foundations of OpenAI and the early tensions at the company.

    Hayden Field and Adi Robertson
    Adi Robertson
    Adi Robertson
    Birchall testifies about Musk’s contributions to OpenAI.

    We’re looking at a summary of about 60 donations to OpenAI, which Birchall says were directed by Musk, with Birchall helping execute all of them.

    Adi Robertson
    Adi Robertson
    The Microsoft investment comes back up.

    Musk’s back from break, reiterating that he had reason for waiting as long as he did to file suit against OpenAI — and saying his initial understanding of OpenAI’s agreement with Microsoft was that it didn’t violate the mission of the charity. “I don’t think I had a basis for filing a lawsuit before I did,” Musk says. He also refers to xAI as the smallest of the AI players, coming after Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and Chinese AI models.

    Adi Robertson
    Adi Robertson
    Elon Musk’s robot army definitely will not kill you.

    Apparently he wasn’t 100 percent confident in yesterday’s clarification, because Molo asks Musk to clarify whether the “AI-enabled robot army” mentioned in cross-examination is a military army. “No, we do not make any weapons,” Musk says. The point of his using the term was that “if we made a lot of robots we need to make sure they’re safe and don’t turn into a Terminator situation … You see, in the movie, it’s not a good situation.”

    Judge Gonzalez Rogers asks Musk to sum up the plot of Terminator in one sentence. “Worst-case situation is AI kills us all, I suppose,” he says.

    With that, the jury leaves for a break.