A nine-person jury in Oakland will begin deliberating Monday on whether OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman violated charitable-trust law when they converted the nonprofit AI lab they co-founded with Elon Musk into a $500-billion for-profit corporation — a verdict that could force the unwinding of that restructure and remove both executives from their roles at the company behind ChatGPT, which 700 million people use every week.
Closing arguments concluded Thursday at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building in Oakland before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who retains sole authority to issue a binding ruling. Simultaneously, starting Monday, she will open a parallel remedies phase to consider potential damages and structural penalties — including the removal of Altman and Brockman — if OpenAI is found liable.
