Who trusts Sam Altman? | TechCrunch

In May 2023, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was sworn in and testified before Congress on the regulation of artificial intelligence. Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana heard his ideas about licensing advanced models and asked whether Altman might be qualified to lead a hypothetical AI regulatory agency.

“I love my current job,” Altman saidto titters.

“You make a lot of money, don’t you?” Kennedy asked him.

“No, I get paid enough for health insurance, I don’t own shares in OpenAI,” Altman assured him.

“You need a lawyer,” Kennedy replied.

Now Altman has sworn in many attorneys who watched their client undergo a devastating interrogation on Tuesday in a California federal court. They explored much the same issue as Kennedy: Is Altman qualified to master the most advanced AI models?

“You didn’t disclose to the United States Senate that you had an interest in OpenAI through a stake in a Y Combinator fund, did you?” barked Steve Molo, the combative lawyer who led Elon Musk’s efforts to shut down OpenAI’s profitable operations.

Altman had admitted that he had economic exposure to OpenAI through his LP position in the Y Combinator fund. “I didn’t mention it in that testimony, but again, I think it’s well understood what it means to be a passive owner of a lot of venture capital funds,” Altman said.

“Did you think Senator Kennedy was a very sophisticated investor when he asked you that question?” Molo replied.

Altman’s decision to volunteer that he had no equity when he could have simply sidestepped the question was interesting. Technically that’s true, but Altman — who emphasized his expertise in investing in early-stage startups — certainly understood his economic exposure to OpenAI through Y Combinator, and through investments in other AI companies working with OpenAI.

Altman’s credibility was in question Tuesday, at least in the eyes of prosecutors. OpenAI’s lawyers insisted little was done to advance Musk’s case, and accused their counterparts of character assassination. But the jury and Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers are weighing Altman’s credibility as a pivotal character in the events they investigate.

Molo went through a litany of people accusing Altman of lying or misleading them — including accusations made under oath in court, including former OpenAI board members Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley, Elon Musk and OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever. He also brought up a recent one New Yorker story in which he expressed concerns about his honesty.

The “blip” – when OpenAI’s board briefly fired Altman and removed OpenAI president Greg Brockman as chairman for not being forthright with them – has been a topic of much discussion throughout this process. Then-board members Toner and McCauley testified that Altman had misled them, with McCauley referring to “a toxic culture of lies.”

“I doubt this was the entire reason” for his dismissal, Altman said. Asked again to acknowledge that the board said he had not been forthright with them, Altman responded, “They asked me to come back the next morning.”

The focus on his firing isn’t just about questioning Altman’s credibility. A key question of the trial is whether OpenAI’s structure delivers on its mission, and specifically whether the nonprofit’s board can exercise effective control over the for-profit organizations. From the point of view of Musk’s lawyers, the 2023 episode provides evidence that Altman’s influence over the company was greater than that of the board of directors.

Witnesses from OpenAI and Microsoft have insisted that the nonprofit’s current board does exercise control over the for-profit company. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella called Altman’s firing “amateur city.”

Bret Taylor, who joined OpenAI’s board as chairman after Altman’s rehiring, said he had found nothing to justify his dismissal and that Altman has been “candid with me.” Dr. Zeko Kolter, the OpenAI board member who focuses on AI safety, said no one has interfered with that work since he started in 2024.

But Taylor also made it clear that the choice to rehire Altman in 2023 was because his departure would have effectively ended OpenAI’s continuity, with most employees planning to follow him out the door. As the jury and judge weigh whether the current structure meets the organization’s mission, they will wonder whether the board can really fire or discipline the CEO.

When asked if he would ever fire himself as CEO, Altman said he had no plans to do so. When asked if he could be trusted, he replied: “I believe I am an honest and trustworthy businessman.”