Zoe Kleinman: Why the AI industry is the real winner of the Musk-Altman trial

The colourful California trial put the men jostling for power at the top of the AI industry on full display Even though Elon Musk essentially lost on a technicality, there's a clear signal from the verdict that making lots of money from AI and competing fiercely with rivals is simply business. The industry sometimes tries to display a united front, especially when it comes to safety, research and inclusivity. But this case served as a powerful reminder that none of the AI giants are charities an

Cracks in the façade of industry collaboration for the sake of humanity have been exposed before. Sam Altman and Anthropic boss Dario Amodei, once colleagues at OpenAI and now bitter rivals, found themselves side-by-side. This time, they pointedly clenched their fists into tight balls to avoid touching one another. Similarly "petty" drama during the trial in Oakland, California these last weeks has helped lift the veil on the AI sector - and the huge egos of the men at the heart of it jostling for money and power. Nobody came out of it looking particularly heroic. Some also speculated that OpenAI could not afford to lose. The company has burned through huge volumes of investor cash and recently hired a chief revenue officer, Denise Dresser, to help raise its own money. I met Dresser, who joined OpenAI from Slack, the US-based team communication platform, a few days ago. She would not discuss the case, but told me the ChatGPT-maker plans to raise 50% of its revenue from consumers and 50% from businesses. Its popular chatbot barely got a mention - it was all about the company's coding agent Codex, which Dresser described as her "chief of staff". Prior to the verdict, the economist and author Sebastian Mallaby predicted OpenAI had a 50% chance of going bust by next year. Not having to pay billions of dollars to Musk in damages may help those odds.

Key points

• Cracks in the façade of industry collaboration for the sake of humanity have been exposed before.
• Sam Altman and Anthropic boss Dario Amodei, once colleagues at OpenAI and now bitter rivals, found themselves side-by-side.
• This time, they pointedly clenched their fists into tight balls to avoid touching one another.
• Similarly "petty" drama during the trial in Oakland, California these last weeks has helped lift the veil on the AI sector - and the huge egos of the men at the heart of it jostling for money and p…
• Nobody came out of it looking particularly heroic.