OAKLAND: A federal jury ruled Monday that Elon Musk waited too long to sue OpenAI and its co-founders, delivering a decisive victory to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and ending one of Silicon Valley&#39;s most closely watched courtroom battles. The jury in Oakland federal court found that Musk&#39;s claims against Altman, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, The OpenAI Foundation and Microsoft were barred by relevant statutes of limitations, rejecting the billionaire&#39;s core arguments. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who had asked the jury to advise her on the matter, accepted and confirmed the verdict. The three-week trial saw a parade of tech titans take the stand, with Musk arguing that OpenAI&#39;s pivot to a profit-driven business betrayed its original nonprofit mandate. The outcome spares OpenAI from a potentially existential legal threat. Had Musk prevailed, he was seeking to force the company to revert to its nonprofit structure -- a move that would have derailed its planned IPO and unwound ties to major investors including Microsoft, Amazon and SoftBank, who have poured billions into the company amid the global AI race. Musk, the world&#39;s richest person, had sued OpenAI over its transformation from a scrappy nonprofit into the $850 billion juggernaut behind ChatGPT, claiming Altman and Brockman improperly used a $38 million donation he had intended to sustain OpenAI as a research lab devoted to developing AI for the benefit of humanity. The jury first had to resolve a threshold issue: whether Musk, who filed suit in 2024 -- four years after his last contribution -- had done so within the statutory time limit. It found he had not, ending the case before jurors could weigh the underlying merits. The judge had ruled ahead of deliberations that the jury&#39;s verdict on the statute of limitations would be advisory, but said she would likely follow its recommendation. Had the case proceeded, jurors -- and ultimately the judge -- would have determined whether OpenAI&#39;s co-founders misappropriated Musk&#39;s donations and broke promises to him in order to pursue a commercial path and enrich themselves. Dueling billionairesClosing arguments had centered heavily on Altman&#39;s integrity and behind-the-scenes maneuvering that rankled colleagues. Musk attorney Steven Molo attacked Altman&#39;s credibility, invoking OpenAI&#39;s founding vision. &quot;A non-profit devoted to the safe development of artificial intelligence, open-sourced as practical, for the benefit of humanity. You know, we&#39;re supposed to buy that,&quot; Molo said Thursday. OpenAI attorney Sarah Eddy countered with an attack on Musk himself, pointing to testimony from Shivon Zilis -- a business associate of Musk with whom he has four children -- who had served as an intermediary between the tech executives. &quot;Even the people who work for him, even the mother of his children, can&#39;t back his story,&quot; Eddy said. As Judge Gonzalez Rogers noted during the trial, the case had in many ways come down to a simple question: who to believe among the bickering billionaires. Musk left OpenAI in 2018 and has since pursued AI projects through his rocket company SpaceX, while his AI startup xAI has struggled to gain traction against OpenAI and Anthropic, another prominent California-based company. Altman, who was fired unexpectedly by OpenAI&#39;s board in November 2023 for a lack of candor before being reinstated under pressure from employees, emerged from the trial with allegations of manipulation and a toxic work culture largely unresolved by the verdict. Microsoft, OpenAI&#39;s largest private backer with $13 billion committed, was also spared. Musk&#39;s accusation that the Windows-making giant was liable for aiding and abetting the alleged breach of charitable trust fell away once the underlying case was ruled invalid.

Business

US jury ruled Elon Musk sued OpenAI too late, ending his challenge against Sam Altman, Microsoft and OpenAI’s for-profit shift, preserving the company’s structure, investor ties and planned public offering.

Musk loses blockbuster OpenAI suit as jury says too late

OAKLAND: Elon Musk was obsessed with trying to control OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company&#39;s CEO Sam Altman said Tuesday at a blockbuster trial pitting some of the world&#39;s wealthiest tech titans against each other. Altman is the latest in a parade of Silicon Valley megastars to take the stand in the case brought by Musk over OpenAI&#39;s pivot away from scrappy non-profit into the $850 billion juggernaut behind ChatGPT. Musk -- the richest person on the planet -- claims Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman improperly used a $38 million injection he had hoped would sustain OpenAI as a research lab, developing the technology for the good of humanity. &quot;It does not fit with my conception of the words &#39;stealing a charity&#39; to look at what has actually happened here,&quot; Altman told the court in Oakland, California. OpenAI was founded as a non-profit in 2015, but established a for-profit subsidiary in 2019 as the AI race heated up. Altman and others insist this was necessary to raise the vast sums of money from investors, including Microsoft, required to compete in a costly and difficult field. Musk&#39;s legal case demands that OpenAI revert to non-profit status, a move that would impact its position in the global artificial intelligence race against Anthropic, Google and China&#39;s Deepseek. OpenAI counters that Musk -- who is now also an AI competitor with his xAI -- is motivated by petty revenge, having failed to seize majority control of the commercial entity. The court has heard how, in 2017, the company&#39;s co-founders discussed the creation of the subsidiary with Musk. Altman said Tuesday that the Tesla boss demanded a huge controlling stake. &quot;An early number that Mr Musk threw out was that he should have 90% of the equity to start,&quot; he told the jury. &quot;It then softened, but it always was a majority.&quot; &quot;The fact that Mr Musk was unwilling to commit in writing to something contractual where he would not have long-term control made me very uncomfortable,&quot; said Altman. He noted OpenAI had been founded with the belief that no one person should control artificial general intelligence (AGI), the hypothetical level at which AI is smarter than humans. When Altman and Brockman thwarted Musk&#39;s attempts to dominate the company, the mercurial businessman walked away entirely, telling them the venture would fail without him. &quot;The thing that burned into my memory is when he told us we had a zero percent -- not one percent -- chance of success,&quot; Altman told the hearing. &#39;I&#39;m a truthful person&#39; Musk&#39;s lawyers hit back, sparring with Altman over claims he is deceitful. &quot;Are you completely trustworthy?&quot; Attorney Steven Molo asked. &quot;Do you always tell the truth?&quot; &quot;I believe I&#39;m a truthful person,&quot; a tense Altman replied. &quot;It wasn&#39;t my question, sir,&quot; snapped Molo. Altman was abruptly ousted as head of OpenAI in Nov. 2023, accused of mendacity by his own board of directors. He was reinstated five days later after a company revolt, but has struggled to shrug off a reputation for dishonesty in Silicon Valley. Musk&#39;s case has highlighted the mind-boggling sums of cash washing around AI companies as they forge ahead with a technology that is changing the way we live and work. That includes the $30 billion stake that Altman&#39;s co-founder Greg Brockman was revealed to have in the company. On Monday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified that he was &quot;very proud&quot; of his firm&#39;s canny investment in the commercial venture, which has seen an initial $13 billion become worth more than ten times that amount in just a few years. Altman&#39;s testimony is expected to continue into Wednesday. An advisory jury is expected to reach a verdict on any actual wrongdoing by the week of May 18. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will then make the final ruling on both liability and remedies after hearing the jury&#39;s opinion. She has indicated she will likely follow their advice.

Artificial Intelligence

Musk -- the richest person on the planet -- claims Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman improperly used a $38 million injection he had hoped would sustain OpenAI as a research lab, developing the technology for the good of humanity.

Musk 'wanted 90%' of OpenAI, Altman tells tech titan trial

WASHINGTON: Top US executives, including Tesla&#39;s Elon Musk and Apple&#39;s Tim Cook, will accompany US President Donald Trump on his visit to China this week, a White House official said Monday. Beijing has said it is ready to work with the United States in pursuit of &quot;more stability&quot; and confirmed that Trump will visit, the first US president to do so since 2017. His trip runs from Wednesday to Friday. Washington and Beijing have been at loggerheads over key issues ranging from trade tariffs to the Iran war to Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory. While in Beijing, Trump will hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, with the countries&#39; myriad trade and economic issues on the table. Trump and Xi agreed in October to a one-year truce in a blistering trade war that saw tariffs on many goods exceed 100 percent. The US president has been pressuring companies to build manufacturing facilities in the United States, a bid to both reduce imports and increase domestic economic activity. Many top tech companies&#39; supply chains, however, heavily involve China, making them particularly exposed to bilateral trade tensions. The United States has also sought to block China from accessing the highest-end artificial intelligence chips from US companies. According to a list shared by a White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, Musk and Cook will be accompanied by 15 other chief executive officers. They include the chiefs of Boeing, GE Aerospace, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Mastercard and Visa. Among tech companies, top executives from Cisco, Meta, Micron and Qualcomm will be on the trip, the official said. Musk, the richest person in the world, heavily backed Trump on the campaign trail for his second term as US president, contributing more than $280 million. The two had a public falling out in July last year, but appear to have since reconciled, with Musk reappearing in White House circles.

Americas

China

Top US executives, including Elon Musk and Tim Cook, will accompany President Donald Trump on his China visit this week, where talks with Xi Jinping are expected to focus on trade, technology and regional tensions.

Musk, Apple's Cook to head to China with Trump: White House

WASHINGTON: Elon Musk announced Saturday a plan to make chips for artificial intelligence, robotics and data centers in space, in the latest bold project by the world&#39;s richest person. The &quot;Terafab&quot;, a manufacturing facility based near Austin, Texas, will aim to produce one terawatt of computing power per year, Musk said. A terawatt is equivalent to one trillion watts. That is slightly less than the total power generation capacity of the United States, according to an industry group. Musk said the project would be run jointly by his electric-vehicle firm Tesla and his rocket company SpaceX. He did not disclose the initial investment. Previous US media reports have put the figure between $20 billion and $25 billion. Musk, who has no prior experience in semiconductors, said the Terafab was necessary because Tesla and SpaceX&#39;s demand for computing power was expected to far exceed that of global chip suppliers. &quot;We&#39;re very grateful to our existing supply chain, to Samsung, TSMC, Micron, and others... but there&#39;s a maximum rate at which they&#39;re comfortable expanding,&quot; Musk said. &quot;That rate is much less than we would like... and we need the chips, so we&#39;re going to build the Terafab.&quot; An &quot;advanced technology fab&quot; in Austin will have the facilities to design, manufacture, test and improve each chip, Musk said. Eventually, the project aims to make chips to support 100 to 200 gigawatts of computing power on Earth, and a terawatt in space. Musk did not give a timeline for the Terafab&#39;s output, and has previously promised grand results from other projects on compressed time scales. He said the Terafab would ultimately help humanity become a &quot;galactic civilization&quot; capable of harnessing the resources of other planets and stars.

Elon Musk unveils plan for “Terafab,” a joint Tesla and SpaceX project to build AI chip manufacturing capacity on Earth and eventually in space to meet rising computing demand.

Musk launches 'Terafab' project to make own AI chips

SAN FRANSCISCO: A federal jury in California found Friday that tech tycoon Elon Musk misled Twitter shareholders, driving down the company&#39;s share price as he was poised to buy it in a $44 billion deal. The verdict in the class action securities lawsuit means the world&#39;s richest person could be ordered to pay billions of dollars, according to damages calculated by jurors. Minutes after the judgment was announced, the entrepreneur&#39;s lawyers informed AFP that their client will appeal the decision, characterizing it as a &quot;setback.&quot; After a three-week trial in a San Francisco federal court &mdash; which included in-person testimony from Musk &mdash; the jury found that two tweets posted in May 2022 by the Tesla and SpaceX CEO contained false statements responsible for a plunge in Twitter&#39;s share price. Investor Giuseppe Pampena had filed the suit on behalf of people who sold Twitter shares between mid-May and early October 2022. Musk acquired the social media platform in late October 2022 and later renamed it X. Jurors agreed that Musk violated a securities rule that bars false and misleading statements that sink a stock price, in this case that of Twitter, the verdict form showed. An attorney for the plaintiffs estimated the damages at about $2.6 billion. Musk, who has a near-constant presence on X, did not immediately react to the verdict. Teflon tycoon?The judgment marks a rare legal defeat for Musk, often dubbed &quot;Teflon Elon&quot; for his ability to emerge unscathed from lawsuits he is expected to lose. His lawyers, in fact, reminded AFP of this track record, noting that a Texas court cleared him just that same day in a separate defamation case. In 2023, a jury in the same San Francisco federal court cleared him within hours of similar charges brought by Tesla shareholders, following his 2018 tweets claiming he had the funding to take the automaker private. The civil complaint in California accused Musk of driving down Twitter&#39;s stock price to gain leverage to renegotiate the purchase price or get out of the deal completely, causing people who sold shares to lose money. Musk tweeted at one point during the process that the acquisition deal was temporarily on hold until Twitter executives could prove the percentage of &quot;bots&quot; &mdash; fake accounts run by software instead of real users &mdash; was as low as the social media platform claimed. The plaintiffs contended that these statements were part of a scheme designed to pressure the board of directors into accepting a price lower than his initial offer &mdash;&nbsp;at a time when Tesla&#39;s share price was falling, meaning Musk would have to sell more of his shares to finance the deal. Musk abandoned his effort to get out of buying Twitter in late 2022 after the company took him to court to uphold the contract. Musk has since merged the social media platform with his artificial intelligence startup xAI and his private space exploration firm SpaceX. Forbes magazine early this month estimated Elon Musk&#39;s net worth at $839 billion, a figure based primarily on his stakes in his portfolio of companies including Tesla and SpaceX.

This combination of pictures created on October 10, 2023, shows (L) SpaceX, Twitter and electric car maker Tesla CEO Elon Musk during his visit at the Vivatech technology startups and innovation fair at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, 

Gadgets

The verdict in the class action securities lawsuit means the world's richest person could be ordered to pay billions of dollars, according to damages calculated by jurors

US jury finds Elon Musk misled Twitter shareholders

PARIS: Elon Musk-owned social network X was failing to show posts to users in many countries on Monday, monitors said, the latest in a series of interruptions. X appeared to be suffering &quot;international outages,&quot; connectivity monitor Netblocks posted on the open-source social network Mastodon. The breakdown was &quot;not related to country-level internet disruptions or filtering&quot;, added Netblocks, which regularly flags technical issues with popular online services and sites, as well as interference by national governments. Its most recent posts about similar outages for X came on February 9, the day of the Super Bowl in the US, and February 1. There was also a spike in user reports of problems with X at around 0130 GMT Monday, according to aggregation website Down Detector. AFP journalists in countries including France and Thailand were also unable to access X. Spokespeople for X did not immediately respond to AFP&#39;s request for comment. Musk laid off thousands of people at the former Twitter and changed its name after buying the service in 2022. He has since merged it with his xAI company, which develops the Grok chatbot. xAI is set to in turn be absorbed by Musk&#39;s rocket firm SpaceX, with that merged entity expected to go public as early as summer this year.

Elon Musk-owned X faced international outages on Monday, with users in many countries unable to view posts. Netblocks said the disruption was not linked to internet restrictions. Similar issues were reported in February, while X gave no immediate comment.

X hit by 'international outages': monitors

WASHINGTON: Four International Space Station (ISS) crew members splashed down in the Pacific Ocean early Thursday, video footage from NASA showed, after a medical issue prompted their mission to be cut short. The SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying the four crew members --&nbsp;American astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui -- landed off the coast of San Diego about 12:41 a.m. (0841 GMT), marking the first-ever medical evacuation from the ISS. First-ever medical evacuationThe US space agency has declined to disclose which&nbsp;crew member has the health problem or provide details about the issue, but it has stressed that the return is not an <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/nasa-to-bring-spacex-crew11-back-early-over-medical-concern" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">emergency</a>. The affected crew member &ldquo;was and continues to be in stable condition,&rdquo; NASA official Rob Navias said Wednesday. &ldquo;First and foremost, we are all OK. Everyone on board is stable, safe and well cared for,&rdquo; Fincke, the pilot of SpaceX Crew-11, said previously on social media. &ldquo;This was a deliberate decision to allow the right medical evaluations to happen on the ground, where the full range of diagnostic capability exists. It&rsquo;s the right call, even if it&rsquo;s a bit bittersweet,&rdquo; he added in a post this week. The Crew-11 quartet arrived at the ISS in early August and had been scheduled to stay on board until they were rotated out in mid-February with the arrival of the next crew. James Polk, NASA&rsquo;s chief health and medical officer, said &ldquo;lingering risk&rdquo; and a &ldquo;lingering question as to what that diagnosis is&rdquo; led to the decision to bring back the crew earlier than originally scheduled. American astronaut Chris Williams and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, who arrived at the station in November aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, remained on the ISS. The Russian Roscosmos space agency operates alongside NASA on the outpost, and the two agencies take turns transporting a citizen of the other country to and from the orbiter &mdash; one of the few areas of bilateral cooperation that still endures between the United States and Russia.

This screengrab taken from NASA+ livestream shows the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft with parachutes deployed before splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California, on January 14, 2026, carrying NASA astronauts Mike Finck

Four International Space Station (ISS) crewmembers splashed down in the Pacific Ocean early Thursday, video footage from NASA showed, after a medical issue prompted their mission to be cut short.

NASA video: International Space Station crew returns to Earth after medical evacuation

JAKARTA: Indonesia suspended Elon Musk&#39;s AI chatbot Grok on Saturday over concerns about AI-generated pornographic content, the country&#39;s communication and digital affairs minister said.&nbsp;Grok has faced a global backlash after it emerged that its image creation feature allowed users to sexualize pictures of women and children using simple text prompts.&nbsp;Indonesia is the first country to deny all access to the tool, which has been restricted to paying subscribers elsewhere following the backlash.&nbsp;&quot;In order to protect women, children, and the public from the risks of fake pornographic content generated using the artificial intelligence technology, the government has temporarily blocked access to the Grok application,&quot; Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid said in a statement.&nbsp;&quot;The government views non-consensual deep fake practices as a serious violation of human rights, dignity, and the security of citizens in the digital space.&quot;&nbsp;The ministry has also summoned representatives from the social media platform X to seek clarification on the issue.&nbsp;According to AFP journalists in Jakarta, the Grok X account was still active and replying to queries, including in Bahasa Indonesia, on Saturday evening.&nbsp;Musk-owned startup xAI, which developed Grok, was not immediately available for comment.&nbsp;European officials and tech campaigners slammed the move to limit Grok&#39;s features to paying subscribers, saying it failed to address concerns about sexually explicit deep fake content.&nbsp;Musk said last week in response to a post about the explicit images that anyone using Grok to &quot;make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.&quot;

Indonesia has blocked Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok over concerns it enables pornographic deepfake content involving women and children. The government called it a human rights violation and has summoned platform X for clarification.

Indonesia suspends Musk's Grok AI over pornographic content: Minister

LONDON: A decision by Elon Musk&#39;s AI chatbot Grok to limit its image creation tool to paid subscribers, amid an outcry over its use for sexualised deepfakes, was &quot;insulting&quot; to victims, the British prime minister&#39;s office said Friday.&nbsp;&quot;That simply turns an AI feature that allows the creation of unlawful images into a premium service ... It&#39;s not a solution. In fact, it&#39;s insulting the victims of misogyny and sexual violence,&quot; Prime Minister Keir Starmer&#39;s spokesperson said.

The UK Prime Minister’s office condemned Grok’s move to restrict image generation to paid users, saying it fails to stop unlawful sexualised deepfakes and insults victims of misogyny and sexual violence.

Limited changes to Grok AI image creation 'insulting' to victims

WASHINGTON: Elon Musk&#39;s AI tool Grok faced growing international backlash on Monday for generating sexualized deepfakes of women and minors, with the European Union joining the condemnation and Britain warning of an investigation. Complaints of abuse flooded the internet after the recent rollout of an &#39;edit image&#39; button on Grok, which enabled users to alter online images with prompts such as &quot;put her in a bikini&quot; or &quot;remove her clothes.&quot; The digital undressing spree, which follows growing concerns among tech campaigners over proliferating AI &quot;nudify&quot; apps, prompted swift probes or calls for remedial action from countries including France, India, and Malaysia. The European Commission, which acts as the EU&#39;s digital watchdog, joined the chorus on Monday, saying it was &quot;very seriously looking&quot; into the complaints about Grok, developed by Musk&#39;s startup xAI and integrated into his social media platform X. &quot;Grok is now offering a &#39;spicy mode&#39; showing explicit sexual content with some output generated with childlike images. This is not spicy. This is illegal. This is appalling,&quot; said EU digital affairs spokesman Thomas Regnier. &quot;This has no place in Europe.&quot; The UK&#39;s media regulator Ofcom said it had made &quot;urgent contact with X and xAI to understand what steps they have taken to comply with their legal duties to protect users in the UK.&quot; Depending on the reply, Ofcom will then &quot;determine whether there are potential compliance issues that warrant investigation.&quot; &#39;Horrifying&#39;Malaysia-based lawyer Azira Aziz expressed horror after a user, apparently in the Philippines, prompted Grok to change her &quot;profile picture to a bikini.&quot; &quot;Innocent and playful use of AI, like putting on sunglasses on public figures, is fine,&quot; Aziz told AFP. &quot;But gender-based violence weaponizing AI against non-consenting women and children must be firmly opposed,&quot; she added, calling on users to report violations to X and Malaysian authorities. Other X users directly implored Musk to take action against apparent pedophiles, &quot;asking grok to put bikinis on children.&quot; &quot;Grok is now undressing photos of me as a child,&quot; Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Musk&#39;s children, wrote on X. &quot;This is objectively horrifying, illegal.&quot; When reached by AFP for comment, xAI replied with a terse, automated response: &quot;Legacy Media Lies.&quot; Amid the online firestorm, Grok sought to assure users on Friday that it was scrambling to fix flaws in the tool. &quot;We&#39;ve identified lapses in safeguards and are urgently fixing them,&quot; Grok said on X. &quot;CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) is illegal and prohibited.&quot; Separately last week, Grok posted an apology for generating and sharing &quot;an AI image of two young girls (estimated ages 12-16) in sexualized attire based on a user&#39;s prompt.&quot; &nbsp;&#39;Grossly offensive&#39;&nbsp;The flurry of reactions came after the public prosecutor&#39;s office in Paris last week expanded an investigation into X to include new accusations that Grok was being used for generating and disseminating child pornography. The initial investigation against X was opened in July following reports that the platform&#39;s algorithm was being manipulated for foreign interference. On Friday, Indian authorities directed X to remove the sexualized content, clamp down on offending users, and submit an &quot;Action Taken Report&quot; within 72 hours, or face legal consequences, local media reported. The deadline lapsed on Monday, but so far, there was no update on whether X responded. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission also voiced &quot;serious concern&quot; at the weekend over public complaints about the &quot;indecent, grossly offensive&quot; content across X. It added that it was investigating the violations and will summon X&#39;s representatives. The criticism adds to growing scrutiny of Grok, which has faced criticism for churning out misinformation about recent crises such as the war in Gaza, the India-Pakistan conflict, and a deadly shooting in Australia.

This photograph, taken on January 13, 2025, in Toulouse shows screens displaying the logo of Grok (AFP)

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Elon Musk’s AI tool Grok faces global backlash for generating sexualized deepfakes of women and minors. The EU, UK, India, France, and Malaysia call for investigations, while xAI promises urgent fixes to safeguard users.

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