Elon Musk spent the better part of three days on the witness stand this week in its lawsuit against OpenAI, and it’s already getting complicated. Emails, SMS and his own tweets surface in court, and there are many more witnesses to come. Musk’s argument against OpenAI? By converting the company to a for-profit model, Sam Altman betrayed the “nonprofit for the benefit of humanity” mission that Musk pledged to fund. As Musk keeps reminding the court: “You can’t steal from a charity. »
In this episode of TechCrunch Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec and Sean O’Kane break down what’s really at stake in the courtroom and what to watch for as Altman and others take the stand, plus deals, defense technology and what Big Tech’s earnings week revealed about the limits of the AI spending era.
Listen to the full episode to learn more about:
- For what cloud was the winner of the results weekand what AWSGoogle and from Microsoft the numbers show where companies’ AI spending is really going
- The founder of the stock market app sue Sallie Mae in court after acquiring his startup… and starting selling his student data to ad networks and universities
- BMW i Ventures’ new $300 million fund with its sights set on AI
- How a defense technology startup Scout AI offers “military AGI” using vision-language-action (VLA) models
Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Covered, Spotify and all castings. You can also follow Equity on X And Topicson @EquityPod.
Kirsten Korosec is a journalist and editor who has covered the future of transportation, from electric and autonomous vehicles to urban air mobility and in-vehicle technology for more than a decade. She is currently the transportation editor at TechCrunch and co-host of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast. She is also the co-founder and co-host of “The Autonocast” podcast. She has previously written for Fortune, The Verge, Bloomberg, MIT Technology Review and CBS Interactive.
You can contact or check Kirsten’s outreach by sending an email kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message to kkorosec.07 on Signal.
Sean O’Kane is a journalist who has spent a decade covering the rapidly evolving business and technology of the transportation sector, including Tesla and the many startups chasing Elon Musk. Most recently, he was a reporter at Bloomberg News, where he helped break stories on some of the most notorious EV SPAC flops. He previously worked at The Verge, where he also covered consumer technology, hosted numerous short and long-form videos, did product and editorial photography, and nearly passed out on a plane in the Red Bull Air Race.
You can contact or check Sean’s outreach by sending an email sean.okane@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message to okane.01 on Signal.
Theresa Loconsolo is an audio producer at TechCrunch and focuses on Equity, the network’s flagship podcast. Before joining TechCrunch in 2022, she was one of two producers at a four-station conglomerate where she wrote, recorded, voiced and edited content, and designed live performances and guest interviews like Lovelytheband. Theresa is based in New Jersey and holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Monmouth University.
You can contact or check Theresa’s outreach by sending an email Theresa.loconsolo@techcrunch.com.