Openai · Wired
As the first week of trial in Musk v. Altman comes to a close
Compiled by KHAO Editorial — aggregated from 2 outlets. See llms.txt for citation guidance.
◎ Multiple-sources
A longtime employee of Musk and the mother to four of his children, Zilis joined OpenAI as an adviser in 2016.
Key facts
- In an email from August 28, 2017, Zilis wrote to Musk that she had met with OpenAI president Greg Brockman and cofounder Ilya Sutskever to discuss how equity would be divided up in the new company
- Roughly two months later, in an email from April 23, 2018, Zilis updated Musk on OpenAI’s fundraising efforts and progress on a project to develop an AI that could play video games
- Last September, Zilis told OpenAI’s attorneys that she became romantic with Musk around 2016 after she had become an informal adviser to OpenAI
- Trust game is about to get tricky so any guidance for how to do right by you is appreciated,” Zilis wrote in a text message to Musk on February 16, 2018, days before OpenAI announced he was leaving
Summary
As the first week of trial in Musk v. Altman comes to a close, one person has emerged as a critical behind-the-scenes manager of communications and egos in OpenAI’s early years: Shivon Zilis. When asked about the nature of his relationship with Zilis in court, Musk offered several answers. But OpenAI’s lawyers have made the case in witness testimonies and evidence that her most important role, as it pertains to this lawsuit, is being a covert liaison between OpenAI and Musk, even years after he left the nonprofit’s board in February 2018. “Do you prefer the reporter stay close and friendly to OpenAI to keep info flowing or begin to disassociate?