How Shevon Zillis served as Elon Musk’s OpenAI insider

As the first Trial week in Musk v. Altman Towards the end, one person emerged as an important behind-the-scenes manager of communications and ego in the early years of OpenAI: Shivon Zilis.

Zillis, a longtime Musk employee and mother of four of his children, joined OpenAI as an advisor in 2016. She later served as a director of its nonprofit board from 2020 through 2023 and served as an executive at Musk’s other companies, Neuralink and Tesla.

When Musk was asked about the nature of his relationship with Zelis in court, he gave several answers. At one point, he called her “Chief of Staff.” and later, a “close advisor.” At another point, he said, “We live together, and she’s the mother of four of my children,” although Zillis said in his testimony that Musk is a more regular guest and maintains his own residence. Last September, Zillis told an OpenAI lawyer that she became romantic with Musk around 2016 after she became an informal advisor to OpenAI. She said they had their first two children in 2021.

But OpenAI’s lawyers have made the case in witness testimony and evidence that its most significant role, with respect to this lawsuit, was as a secret liaison between OpenAI and Musk, even years after he left the nonprofit’s board of directors in February 2018.

“Would you rather I stay close and friendly with OpenAI to keep the information flowing or start separating? Would you rather I stay close and friendly to OpenAI to keep the information flowing or start separating? “Close and friendly,” Musk replied, “but we will try hard to move three or four people from OpenAI to Tesla. More will join over time, but we will not actively hire them.”

When Musk was asked about this exchange on the witness stand, he said he “wants to know what’s going on.”

In the same thread, Musk wrote: “There is little chance that OpenAI will become a serious force if it focuses on Tesla AI.” “There’s a very slim possibility of a good future if someone doesn’t slow down Demis,” Zelis reiterated, referring to Demis Hassabis, head of Google DeepMind, who Musk said he doesn’t trust to control the super-intelligent AI system. “You don’t realize how much you can directly influence it or otherwise slow it down. I think you know I’m not a malicious person, but in this case, it seems fundamentally irresponsible not to find a way to slow or change its course.”

Nearly two months later, in an email dated April 23, 2018, Zelis updated Musk on OpenAI’s fundraising efforts and progress on a project to develop an artificial intelligence that can play video games. In the same letter, she said she had reallocated most of her time away from OpenAI to his other two companies, Neuralink and Tesla, but told him: “If you would prefer me to devote more hours to overseeing OpenAI, please let me know.”

About a year ago, in the summer of 2017, OpenAI’s co-founders began negotiating changes to the organization’s corporate structure, as Musk wanted to begin controlling the company. In an email dated August 28, 2017, Zellis wrote to Musk that she had met with OpenAI CEO Greg Brockman and co-founder Ilya Sutskever to discuss how to divide shares in the new company. She summarized points from the meeting, including Brockman and Sutskever’s belief that no single person should have unilateral authority over AGI, if they develop it. Musk responded to Zellis, saying, “This is very annoying. Please encourage them to start a company. I’ve had enough.”