Musk vs. Altman trial kicks off with jurors calling Musk a ‘racist piece of garbage’

The courtroom drama between Elon Musk and Sam Altman over OpenAI’s allegedly broken promises kicked off Monday, and jury selection went exactly how you’d expect when one of the parties is Elon Musk.

Not great.

The Verge’s Elizabeth Lopatto was in the room, and she shared some of the juror questionnaire responses. They are brutal.

One prospective juror wrote: “Elon Musk is a greedy, racist, homophobic piece of garbage.”

Another said: “Elon Musk is a world-class jerk.”

And a third: “I very much dislike Tesla. As a woman of color, I am very aware of the damaging statements and actions Elon Musk has enacted and been a part of.”

This is not exactly a jury pool that’s going to give Musk the benefit of the doubt.

The core of the case is Musk’s claim that OpenAI, which he co-founded, broke its original non-profit, open-source promise when it partnered with Microsoft and went commercial. Altman and OpenAI argue that the mission evolved, and that Musk’s real issue is that he’s not in charge.

But the jury selection problem is real. Musk has spent years cultivating a public persona that is, let’s say, polarizing. He’s called a cave diver a pedophile, hired and fired people on Twitter, and generally leaned into the chaos. That’s fine for building a brand if you’re selling cars or rockets. It’s less fine when you need twelve people to decide if you were wronged.

The defense will likely try to seat jurors who either don’t follow tech news or who view Musk as a misunderstood genius. The plaintiff’s side? They might have a harder time finding people who haven’t already formed an opinion.

I’ve covered enough tech trials to know that jury selection is often the most important phase. You can have all the evidence in the world, but if the jury already thinks you’re a jerk, you’re fighting uphill. And in this case, the hill looks pretty steep.

We’ll see how the trial shakes out, but if the jury selection is any indicator, Musk’s legal team has their work cut out for them.