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Shivon Zilis Testifies in Musk v. OpenAI Trial
Shivon Zilis, a Neuralink executive and mother of four of Elon Musk's children, testified on Wednesday in the second week of the trial. The testimony detailed her role at OpenAI and relationship with Musk. Other witnesses described internal conflicts during the company's shift from nonprofit to for-profit status.
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The GuardianAudio version
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Shivon Zilis, a 40-year-old Neuralink executive and mother of four of Elon Musk's children, testified on Wednesday in the second week of the trial in Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI. Zilis worked with OpenAI between 2016 and 2023 and served on its board from 2020 to 2023 as its youngest member. She met Musk through her work at OpenAI and took a project director role at Tesla in 2017.
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The lawsuit alleges that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman broke a founding agreement by restructuring the company from nonprofit to for-profit. Musk seeks removal of Altman and Brockman, reversal of the restructuring, and $134 billion in damages for OpenAI's nonprofit arm.
OpenAI rejects the claims and argues Musk supported the shift before leaving in 2018 after a failed bid for control.
Court filings show Zilis texted Musk in 2018: “Do you prefer I stay close and friendly to OpenAI to keep info flowing or begin to disassociate? ” Musk replied: “Close and friendly, but we are going to actively try to move three or four people from OpenAI to Tesla. Zilis and Musk became romantically involved around 2016, according to her deposition.
She lives in a house in Austin where Musk sometimes stays when visiting their children. Musk testified that he refers to Zilis as his “chief of staff” and mother of his children and that he lives with her. In her deposition Zilis said: “‘Relationship’ is a relative term.
Greg Brockman testified that after Musk left OpenAI in 2018, Zilis was “kind of our proxy Elon in some ways” and “very” involved in the for-profit restructuring. When Zilis gave birth to twins in 2021 she told Brockman the conception was via IVF and entirely platonic; he learned of the romantic relationship in the news.
