Elon Musk Amplifies New Yorker’s Sam Altman Exposé on X as Trial Commences

Elon Musk is amplifying a post on X that promotes The New Yorker’s in-depth exploration of Sam Altman’s allegedly misleading actions, as confirmed by WIRED. This action coincides with Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman, which is set to go to jury trial in a federal court on Monday morning.

On Monday, users scrolling through X reported seeing a post from Ronan Farrow, a coauthor of the New Yorker piece, advertising the investigation dated April 6. A notification on the post within X’s mobile application indicates it was boosted by @elonmusk, who also owns the platform. Boosting allows X subscribers to pay an extra fee to elevate their posts. WIRED successfully confirmed the pop-up notification.

Musk shared Farrow’s article on Monday from his account as well, stating, “Calling him ‘Scam’ Altman is accurate,” referencing a part of the article that includes his nickname for the OpenAI leader. “This is very much worth reading.”

Neither The New Yorker, X, nor OpenAI responded immediately to WIRED’s request for comment.

The boosted post by Farrow lacked an “ad” label in users’ feeds on Monday, but those who accessed the post options menu saw choices including “report ad.” According to an FAQ page regarding X’s Boost feature, the company explains that “boosted posts must also self-identify as an advertisement and comply with X’s ad policies.”

Musk’s lawsuit targets OpenAI, Altman, the company’s president Greg Brockman, and Microsoft, accusing the ChatGPT creator of deviating from its original nonprofit mission: ensuring that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. Musk was a cofounder of OpenAI and initially invested tens of millions into the nonprofit. He argues in court that his investment was not utilized as he intended. OpenAI has countered this assertion, claiming that Musk was aware that OpenAI would eventually need to evolve into a major business to fulfill its objectives. The trial commenced on Monday with jury selection, during which several potential jurors indicated they were not fans of Musk or AI in general.

Zeyi Yang contributed to this report.