Posted May 12, 2026 3:46 pm 5 min read Musk lawsuit against Altman, Microsoft gets heated; seeks to revert OpenAI to non-profit A jury that’s already heard about Altman’s character from a parade of his former allies and adversaries will ultimately decide the verdict. But the repercussions could reverberate widely. “This is not looking good for any of them, and I think that that’s a little bit unfortunate for the AI industry at a time when the public perception of AI is quite negative and seems to be getting worse,” said Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute. Testimony about Altman has been a font of social media memes The lawsuit accuses Altman and his top lieutenant, Greg Brockman, of double-crossing Musk by straying from the San Francisco company’s founding mission to be an altruistic steward of a revolutionary technology. The lawsuit alleges they shifted into a moneymaking mode behind his back. Musk is seeking an unspecified amount of money to be paid to fund the altruistic efforts of OpenAI’s charitable arm. Story continues below advertisement While Musk, the head of SpaceX, Tesla and a slew of other companies, was well known by the San Francisco Bay Area jury pool, fewer knew who Altman was before the start of the trial, even if they were familiar with ChatGPT. Get daily National news Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you'll never miss the day's top stories. Sign up for daily National newsletter Get Started By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy. Since the start of the trial, testimony about Altman’s turbulent tenure at OpenAI has become prime fodder for internet jokes. One piece of evidence that has inspired countless memes was a text exchange between Altman and a company officer, Mira Murati, in 2023 during his short-lived ouster as CEO, when Altman asked if things were moving “directionally good or bad” and she wrote back: “Sam this is very bad.” 0:24