2026 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony

Technology tycoons Elon Musk and Sam Altman are poised to face off in a high-stakes trial revolving around the alleged betrayal, deceit and unbridled ambition that blurred the bickering billionaires’ once-shared vision for the development of artificial intelligence. The trial, which began Monday with jury selection, centers on the 2015 birth of ChatGPT maker OpenAI as a nonprofit startup primarily funded by Musk before evolving into a capitalistic venture now valued at $852 billion. The civil lawsuit accuses Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, of double-crossing Musk by straying from the company’s founding mission to be an altruistic steward of the technology.