Shivon Zilis, a top executive at Neuralink and the mother of four children with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, appeared in court on Wednesday as one of the key witnesses in Musk’s legal battle against OpenAI, The Guardian reported. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, claimed that during her tenure at the company from 2016 to 2023, Zilis was secretly in a relationship with Musk and allegedly served as a source of information for him.
Elon Musk, the co-founder of OpenAI, is demanding $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and investor Microsoft, with the amount intended to support the startup’s charitable side.
In an ongoing lawsuit, OpenAI’s former chief technology officer testified on Wednesday that CEO Sam Altman created distrust among top executives as the company advanced the development and widespread deployment of its advanced artificial intelligence technology, Reuters reported.
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“My concern was that Sam was telling one person one thing and another person the exact opposite,” said Mira Murati, who was briefly CEO of OpenAI after its board temporarily ousted Altman in 2023. She said Altman “created chaos” and sometimes lied to her and others, according to a Reuters report.
Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in 2024, arguing that the company had wrongly moved into a for-profit business, strayed from its original charitable mission, and should return to operating as a non-profit organization.
If Musk succeeds in the case, it could also weaken the commercial growth of a rival to his own AI venture, xAI, which is now part of SpaceX.
Shivon Zilis and her relationship with Elon Musk – Why does she matter?
Shivon Zilis emerged as a key figure in the case as she acted as a liaison between Elon Musk and OpenAI’s board of directors, where she served from 2020 to 2023, according to The Guardian.
In a pre-trial filing, OpenAI’s lawyers raised questions about the nature of Zilis’ relationship with Musk, citing communications that say she acted as an insider for him after she left the company. Zilis first met Musk through her work at OpenAI, the report said.
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According to court filings cited by The Guardian, Zilis sent Musk a text message in 2018: “Would you rather I stay close and friendly with OpenAI to keep the information flowing, or start separating? The Trust game is about to get tricky, so any guidance on how to get it right would be appreciated.”
“Close and friendly, but we will actively try to move three or four people from OpenAI to Tesla. More than that will join over time, but we will not be actively recruiting,” Musk responded, according to The Guardian report.
According to a report by The Guardian, when Musk left OpenAI’s board in February 2018, Zilis said, “They were so bad at talking to each other.”
Read also | Elon Musk accuses lawyer Sam Altman of trying to deceive him on the witness stand
She added: “My role historically has been to facilitate communication between all the major parties to achieve maximum alignment between them.”
Zilis also testified that Sam Altman later invited her to join the board in 2020, and she accepted because she had “spent the last decade of my life wanting to make artificial intelligence work well for humanity.” When asked if she sent information to Musk during her time on the board, she vehemently denied it, replying: “Funnel? Absolutely not.”
Musk has four children with Shivon – twins Strider and Azure, daughter Arcadia and son Seldon Lycurgus. Seldon, Musk’s 13th child, was born in March 2025.
During his testimony last week, Elon Musk described Shivon Zilis as the mother of his children and said they live together. The pair have also recently been spotted holding hands and appearing at events together, including dinners with US President Donald Trump at the White House and Mar-a-Lago.
ChatGPT release concerns
Shivon Zilis noted that there was internal turmoil as the company prepared for the main launch of the ChatGPT chatbot, Reuters reported.
She said the board “expressed extreme concern” over the release of ChatGPT “without any semblance of board communication.”
Asked if she had raised concerns about Altman internally, Zilis said “there have been a few instances.”
Read also | What’s next in Elon Musk’s Megatrial against OpenAI and Sam Altman
Testimony from Elon Musk, OpenAI president Greg Brockman and others outlined internal disagreements between executives and founders over how the company should grow and operate, including whether Musk, whose seed funding was key to getting the startup off the ground, should take on the role of CEO, a Reuters report noted.
The proceedings also revealed unexpected details, including that Musk allegedly tried to reach an agreement with Brockman shortly before the trial began and at one point felt “like a fool” for continuing to financially support OpenAI.
(With input from agencies)
Key things
- The lawsuit underscores the tension in OpenAI’s leadership and the implications for its future direction.
- Shivon Zilis’ dual role as Musk’s partner and board member raises questions about confidentiality and influence over company management.
- Musk’s desire to return OpenAI to a non-profit organization reflects broader concerns about the commercialization of AI technologies.
