The trial of Musk and Altman took a scary turn: ‘We could all die because of AI’

“We could all die”

The tense atmosphere in the courtroom reached its climax when Elon Musk’s lawyer issued a dramatic warning about the dangers posed by technology in the development of which his client participated.

​- This is a real risk, we could all die as a result of AI –

These words echoed through the courtroom, but Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers quickly stopped the discussion. She reminded Musk’s lawyer, Steven Molo, that he must stick to the subject of the trial and gave him a sharp rebuke.

​- It’s ironic that your client, despiteč these risks, creates a company that deals with exactly that area. There are people who do not want to put the future of humanity in the hands of Mr. Musk. But we will not enter into that discussion – she said.

The background to the clash of tech giants

Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI is the latest chapter in the conflict between the two rivals, which has been simmering for years and has now escalated into a multi-week court process. At the heart of Musk’s lawsuit is the claim that OpenAI, a company he co-funded with about $38 million in 2015, has deviated from its original non-profit mission. Musk claims that Altman betrayed the public’s trust by turning the organization into a profit-oriented company with close ties to Microsoft.

Musk also included the president of OpenAI, Greg Brockman, in the lawsuit, claiming that they played a key role in the commercialization of the company, which Microsoft denies. OpenAI and Altman reject the accusations, claiming that Musk is actually motivated by jealousy over the company’s success and that through this process he is trying to promote his own competitor in the field of artificial intelligence, the company xAI. Their lawyers claim that Musk was aware of the plans to establish a for-profit branch and that at one point he himself tried to take full control of the company.

Real danger or exaggeration?

Although the judge rightly emphasized that the existence of artificial intelligence is not being judged in this case, more about the future of OpenAI, the very fact that extermination was mentioned indicates what the real background of the story is. A victory for Musk could cause major upheavals in the company, and potentially lead to the removal of Altman from the position of director. However, fundamental questions about the safety of the technology remain unresolved.

Technology discussed in abstract terms već is deeply rooted in tools like ChatGPT and is rapidly spreading into everyday žlife. The people who are fighting this legal battle are the same people who are shaping the future of artificial intelligence. Even as AI is increasingly being integrated into products, there is still no consensus among its creators about how risky it really is.

Coordination problem and global priorities

Experts are divided about the real extent of existential risks. Some scientists and industry leaders, including the signatories of the Center for AI Safety’s open letter, believe that “mitigating AI extinction risks should be a global priority, alongside other societal-scale risks like pandemics and nuclear war.” A central concern is the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI), a system that could surpass human intelligence and become uncontrollable. The so-called “alignment problem”, or the challenge of ensuring that the goals of artificial intelligence remain aligned with human values, is one of the biggest technical obstacles. Scenarios like the hypothetical “paperclip maximizer” illustrate how artificial intelligence with a seemingly innocuous goal could have disastrous consequences.

The world is trying to catch up with technology

The process is taking place against the backdrop of global efforts to create a regulatory framework for artificial intelligence. In the European Union moreć If the Artificial Intelligence Act is in force, the provisions for high-risk systems will have to be fully implemented by August 2026. There is no comprehensive federal law in the United States yet, but some states like California and Colorado are leading the way with their own regulations. China, on the other hand, applies targeted regulations that emphasize social stability and state control.

These regulatory efforts reflect the growing realization that the development of artificial intelligence cannot be left solely to technology companies. The courtroom debate between Musk and Altman thus becomes a public forum for a fundamental question: how can society maintain control over a technology that has the potential to surpass it.

*with the use of AI