A former member of the board of directors of OpenAI told in court how Elon Musk became the father of her children

Former OpenAI board member Siobhan Zilis spoke in court about her relationship with Elon Musk and how he became the father of her four children, writes BBC. She testified in federal court in Oakland as part of a trial related to Musk’s attempt to challenge OpenAI’s transformation into a for-profit company.

During the hearing, Zilis detailed both early discussions about OpenAI’s future structure and her personal relationship with Musk. According to her, in 2020, an entrepreneur asked her to become a sperm donor because she wanted to have children. Zilis noted that Musk then actively convinced others to have more children and drew attention to the fact that she did not have them yet.

Zilis has more than 15 years of experience in venture capital investment and previously held senior positions at Musk’s companies Tesla and Neuralink. In 2016, she became an advisor to OpenAI, where she first began working closely with Musk. She later joined the company’s board of directors and remained there from 2020 to 2023. OpenAI lawyers suggested during the trial that after Elon Musk left the company in 2018, Zilis could have passed on internal information to him. However, she stated that their romantic relationship ended about ten years ago and by the time the children were born, there was no longer a romantic connection between them.

According to Zilis, they initially agreed to keep his paternity a secret, and the entrepreneur himself did not plan to actively participate in raising his first two children. Later the situation changed, and now Elon Musk regularly spends time with all four children.

She also explained that due to a confidentiality agreement, she did not tell OpenAI CEO Sam Altman that Musk was the father of her twins, born in 2021. Only later did she disclose this information to company management.

Despite this, Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman supported her continued participation on the board of directors. According to Zilis, they maintained good relations until at least 2023.

The hearing also featured emails and correspondence related to early discussions about the future of OpenAI. It follows from the documents that back in 2017, the company’s management discussed the need to move away from a completely non-profit model in order to attract billions of dollars in investment. According to the correspondence, Elon Musk wanted more control over OpenAI, including additional seats on the board of directors.