The incredible stakes of Elon Musk's trial against OpenAI
The Times Tech Podcast
Will Morley
4.8 • 676 Ratings
🗓️ 14 May 2026
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sam Altman took the stand this week to defend himself and his company against a lawsuit by Elon Musk. The three-week long trial has featured some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley, including Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella and OpenAI cofounder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever. As the trial nears its end, Danny Fortson and Katie Prescott talk about why the stakes are so high and debate whether this is a case of sour grapes, or if OpenAI did actually “steal a charity” from Musk. Plus, the founder of Raspberry Pi on the future of AI and how he feels about his microcomputer being used to power AI agents such as OpenClaw.
Get in touch: techpod@thetimes.co.uk
Producer: Marnie Duke
Executive Producer: Priyanka Deladia
Image: Getty
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Times Tech Podcasts where every week we unpack how technology is reshaping business culture in everyday life. |
| 0:12.7 | I am Danny Fortin out here in the Valley covering one of the most dramatic tech courtroom trials, Elon Musk versus Open AI or Sam Allman. |
| 0:24.6 | And I'm Katie Prescott here in London, where there are also wild storms going on. |
| 0:30.6 | Some pretty big political ones and weather ones, I should say. |
| 0:34.6 | But of course the tech drama is over in California where so far we've had two |
| 0:39.3 | newly revealed billionaires, secret informant allegations, and, you know, just some plans to build |
| 0:46.3 | cities on Mars too. So this week is a reminder that while we are busy looking ahead to the future |
| 0:52.7 | where AI agents may replace humans |
| 0:54.9 | and data centers could be built in space and all of that sort of stuff, actually, the messy |
| 0:59.7 | corporate origins of AI continue to haunt us. Yeah, and the origin of open AI is exactly what |
| 1:06.7 | Elon Musk is questioning in this trial. It's now entered its third and final week in terms of testimony. |
| 1:14.6 | So a verdict could come as soon as next week. |
| 1:17.8 | And it's really laid bare the conflicts and rivalries lurking behind Open AIs rise from |
| 1:23.5 | little nonprofit to $852 billion company. |
| 1:29.4 | Just a little startup, as we like to refer to it. |
| 1:32.7 | Yeah, a little. |
| 1:36.3 | Petit startup, open AI. |
| 1:38.5 | But I just want to, before we get into the trial, and there is so much talk about there, |
| 1:42.7 | I wanted to tell you about this lunch I had last week in Kings Cross. |
| 1:46.1 | And it just made me chuckle because I was just in a bog standard restaurant in Kings Cross. |
| 1:51.6 | And on the table next to me was this collection of, I think, Americans and French people who were no joke talking about building data centers in space. |
| 2:01.5 | Well, you know, these are the times we live in. |
... |
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