The craziest part of Musk v. Altman happened while the jury was out of the room

A striking development has emerged in artificial intelligence. AI Close AI Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All AI Tech Close Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Tech Elon Musk Close Elon Musk Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

Follow Follow See All Elon Musk The craziest part of Musk v. Altman happened while the jury was out of the room Jared Birchall, Musk’s money manager, answered a question he wasn’t supposed to. It’s unclear what the consequences will be.

Technical Details

by Elizabeth Lopatto Close Elizabeth Lopatto Senior Reporter Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Elizabeth Lopatto Apr 30, 2026, 10:59 PM UTC Link Share Gift Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images AI Close AI Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All AI Tech Close Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

Follow Follow See All Tech Elon Musk Close Elon Musk Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Elon Musk The craziest part of Musk v. Altman happened while the jury was out of the room Jared Birchall, Musk’s money manager, answered a question he wasn’t supposed to.

It’s unclear what the consequences will be. by Elizabeth Lopatto Close Elizabeth Lopatto Senior Reporter Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Elizabeth Lopatto Apr 30, 2026, 10:59 PM UTC Link Share Gift Part Of Live updates from Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s court battle over the future of OpenAI see all updates Elizabeth Lopatto Close Elizabeth Lopatto Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

Industry Implications

Follow Follow See All by Elizabeth Lopatto is a reporter who writes about tech, money, and human behavior. She joined The Verge in 2014 as science editor. Previously, she was a reporter at Bloomberg.

Okay, I am not a lawyer so I only understood about half of what just happened. But I am fairly sure, given the context, that Elon Musk’s lawyers may have just fucked up big. Jared “ James Brickhouse ” Birchall, Musk’s finance guy and all-around fixer, took the stand after Musk today.

Most of his testimony was dull and seemed to exist primarily to get some documents read into the record, which sucks but is a normal part of sitting through trials. But at the very end of his boring testimony something interesting happened. I believe we all got a surprise, something that rarely happens in courtrooms.

This advance offers important signals about the future of the sector, and the tech world is watching closely.