On April 25, Musk reportedly sent Brockman a text intended (according to the defendant’s attorneys’ description) to gauge interest in a potential agreement. Brockman apparently responded to the message with the suggestion that both sides of the case drop their claims. Musk responded, “By the end of this week, you and
Sam will be the most hated man in America. If you insist, it will happen.”
OpenAI representatives stated that they “do not intend to present screenshots of the exchange as evidence”, so we are left with their description of the exchange. It seems the plan is to introduce the text into evidence so that Brockman can be asked about it when he takes the witness stand to testify.
OpenAI’s filing included few references, less about the case and more about Musk’s methodology. This included a similar settlement “threat” made during litigation over their bid to acquire Twitter and a later unsuccessful attempt to back out of the deal. “Motivation and bias are proven, and in particular, Mr. Musk’s motivation in pursuing this lawsuit is to attack a competitor and its principals,” OpenAI argued. He argued that the settlement offer, coupled with the threat of making Altman and Brockman “the most hated men in America”, was “coercive rather than conciliatory”.
Altman and Brockman aren’t exactly popular (well, Brockman isn’t really known to most of the public), but Musk has an uphill climb trying to make them hate him more than himself. A YouGov poll earlier this year found that 56% of the general public had an unfavorable opinion of Musk, while 34% had a positive association with the oligarch. It’s not clear whether spending much of the past week testifying will help Musk’s image among those who are paying attention. He repeatedly lost his temper and revealed that at least some of his public lies about his companies were little more than smoke and mirrors.
That doesn’t mean Altman is beloved in comparison to Musk, as a Tech Oversight poll conducted last year found that 50% of people have a negative view of OpenAI’s CEO. Altman also doesn’t usually do himself much favors when speaking in public – it turns out that when a rich guy says things blandly like “I expect some very bad things to happen because of technology” and then continues to develop the technology, most people don’t have good feelings. But it seems like the best case for Musk here is that he’s won a South Park-ian Giant Douche vs. Turd Sandwich-style popularity contest.
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