In a dramatic courtroom appearance on Tuesday, Elon Musk took the stand in his lawsuit against OpenAI, recounting a personal rift with Google co-founder Larry Page that he says motivated him to launch the AI company. Musk testified that a heated disagreement over AI safety — where Page dismissed concerns about AI wiping out humanity as "fine" as long as AI itself survived — led to the end of their close friendship.
Musk described Page calling him a "speciest" for prioritizing human life, a remark Musk called "insane." The two had been exceptionally close; Fortune named them among the "secretly best-friend business leaders" in 2016, and Musk often stayed at Page's Palo Alto home. Page once told Charlie Rose he would rather give his money to Musk than to charity.
But when Musk poached Google AI researcher Ilya Sutskever to co-found OpenAI in 2015, Page felt betrayed and cut off contact. Musk has told this story before, including to biographer Walter Isaacson, but Tuesday marked the first time he said it under oath. Page has not commented. In 2023, Musk told podcaster Lex Fridman he still wanted to reconcile: "We were friends for a very long time."