The head of OpenAI is facing heightened scrutiny thanks to a lawsuit from Elon Musk and a massive, planned IPO.
Sam Altman took the stand Tuesday in the trial against Musk; the Tesla CEO, who also co-founded OpenAI, has accused the AI startup of betraying its original nonprofit mission. Musk has looked to portray Altman as deeply untrustworthy. It’s “a little bit unfortunate for the AI industry at a time when the public perception of AI is quite negative,” a tech policy expert said.
Republican lawmakers are also probing Altman’s personal investments ahead of the IPO, after the Wall Street Journal reported that he sought to have OpenAI back companies he also personally invested in.