Former partners, the two tech figures have embarked on a multi-year feud. The latest chapter begins on Monday when a trial begins in a case in California, USA.
In one corner of the ring is Elon Musk, the world's richest man, who claims that his millions were used fraudulently by OpenAI during the start-up phase of the company's journey.
In the other corner of the ring is Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, who claims that Elon Musk is a liar and a bad loser.
Partners
OpenAI is today known as one of the world's most highly valued companies and as the company behind ChatGPT, the service that started the entire AI boom.
But before that, OpenAI was a company with a clear non-profit focus. That focus is especially important, because it is something that Elon Musk says OpenAI has "fiddled away," including through his early contribution of $38 million.
The company's focus, as a shield against the potential existential threat that AI poses to humanity, has also cracked, says Musk.
"I've thought a lot about whether it's possible to stop humanity from developing AI. I think the answer is almost certainly no. If it's going to happen, it makes sense for someone other than Google to do it first," Altman wrote in an email to Musk in 2015, The Guardian reports.
Enemies
A couple of years later, Musk wanted total control of OpenAI, Altman says. The two parted ways and became enemies, and OpenAI has moved increasingly toward commercialization.
Elon Musk is therefore seeking $134 billion in damages and Altman's firing from the company. However, Musk says the money should not go into his own pockets but into the non-profit part of OpenAI.
OpenAI has simply deceived Musk, who also runs XAI with the Grok service, and played on his "humanitarian concerns," Musk's camp says.
Secrets
Which of Altman and Musk emerges victorious from the ring and the legal battle will most likely become just a historical footnote.
The real explosive issue, with potential impact on each combatant's company, comes from the upcoming interrogations of Musk, Altman and others among the tech world's elite. Those figures are expected to be asked to answer questions about several companies' strategies, investments and future, as well as how dangerous AI really is to humanity.
It is difficult to verify exactly how many users different AI services have. The different companies involved often define users in different ways. Some services also overlap.
According to media reports and publicly available statistics, OpenAI's ChatGPT is by far the most popular AI service. A rough estimate is that ChatGPT has at least 600 million active users each month. ChatGPT also has an estimated 80 percent of the chat services market.
According to the Internet Foundation's report Swedes and the Internet 2025, one in three Swedes has used ChatGPT in the past year. The figure for Gemini was 2 percent.
