American technology billionaire Elon Musk’s current partner, Shivon Ziris, testified in court on Wednesday and was questioned about whether she “leaked” information to Musk while serving as a board member of OpenAI. "I have always been committed to making artificial intelligence benefit humanity," Ziris said during testimony in Oakland, California. An OpenAI executive accused Ziris of failing to disclose that Musk was the father of her twins while serving on the agency's board of directors.
Zilis, 40, met Musk in 2016 through OpenAI. At the time, she turned down the COO position offered by OpenAI and instead worked as a consultant. In 2020, Ziris joined OpenAI's board of directors after Musk stopped donating to the nonprofit organization that was embroiled in legal troubles.
Testimonies from OpenAI’s lawyers and its executives indicate that Ziris was a close adviser and attorney to Musk, often consulting her when they had difficulty reaching Musk directly.
Although Ziris worked at Musk’s Tesla and Neuralink and had children with Musk while serving on the board of OpenAI, Musk’s team and Ziris himself insist that Ziris acted independently.
Musk is suing OpenAI and its co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman in the case, alleging that they induced him to donate $38 million to a nonprofit organization before the company eventually transformed into a for-profit enterprise.
OpenAI stated that Musk was not only aware of OpenAI’s plan to transform itself into a for-profit enterprise, but also supported the plan and demanded absolute control of the enterprise.
Zilis testified that “countless” possible architectural solutions were proposed at the time, including the one favored by Musk, which would see OpenAI become a subsidiary of Tesla. But she said Altman, Brockman and OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskvo all refused to join Tesla.
She also testified that when Musk left the OpenAI board in 2018, he was concerned that Tesla would compete with OpenAI for engineering talent as he was building artificial intelligence capabilities at the electric car maker. Ziris said that just days before Musk stepped down, he recruited one of OpenAI's top artificial intelligence researchers to join Tesla.
For OpenAI and its executives, the stakes in this case are high. Musk is asking the court to remove Altman and Brockman from their leadership roles and for OpenAI's for-profit arm to pay up to $180 billion in damages to its nonprofit parent. Musk also asked the court to undo OpenAI’s recent transition to a more traditional corporate governance structure. If any of these demands are approved, it could upend the company and the entire artificial intelligence industry.
Ziris said in her testimony that she originally joined OpenAI through her work in the AI nonprofit space. In 2016, she met Musk while serving as a consultant for OpenAI, and the two dated briefly. After that, she worked at Musk's Tesla, Neuralink and OpenAI.
In 2023, after Musk founded xAI, Ziris left the OpenAI board of directors. By then, the couple had three children, and they later added another.
“When the father of your children starts competing with others, or even poaching people from OpenAI, there is nothing you can do,” she wrote in a text message she sent to a friend at the time that was read in court Wednesday.
Brockman said in testimony Tuesday that Ziris initially concealed the fact that Musk was the father of her child. Brockman said he learned from Ziris that she had given birth to twins and later learned through public reports that Musk was the father. When he questioned Ziris, she said the child had been born through in vitro fertilization (IVF) and that their relationship was platonic, he testified.
Zilis spoke clearly and clearly on the witness stand, but became emotional as she described how her autoimmune disease made it difficult for her to maintain long-term relationships. She said that around 2020, Musk offered to donate sperm to get her pregnant because he wanted people around him to have more children. She said she initially kept Musk's parent-child relationship secret to protect her children from safety threats, but disclosed the matter to the OpenAI board after a news report in 2022 exposed it.
Since then, Musk has more actively taken on the responsibilities of a father and taken care of their four children. According to public information so far, Musk has at least 14 children with four women.
Altman and Brockman’s potential business conflicts of interest also came up during Ziris’ testimony. Zilis recalled a board meeting at OpenAI when the artificial intelligence lab was considering a deal with fusion startup Helion. Both Brockman and Altman hold significant stakes in the startup.
Zilis testified that she told the board she was concerned about the deal because the technology was "unproven." Ziris also said the startup didn't have any product available at the time.
At the time, Ziris believed that the main bottleneck in building powerful models was not chips, software or employees, but the actual computing power required. Ziris said in his testimony that if computing power is "the most important input," then "why should we bet on speculative technology?"
When asked whether Brockman and Altman recused themselves from discussion of the transaction with Helion at the board meeting, Ziris responded "Yes, but they were still in the room at the time."