The Musk v. Altman trial took a strange turn this week when Shivon Zilis took the witness stand. Zilis testified under oath that she is the mother of four of Elon Musk's children, while also describing a years-long professional relationship that spans his entire AI empire. She started working with Musk in 2017 after the two met through OpenAI.
Zilis pushed back on the 'chief of staff' label often attached to her in the press. Instead, she said she worked across Musk's 'entire AI portfolio,' which she defined as Tesla, Neuralink, and OpenAI. She described her early connection with Musk as a 'one off' that was 'romantic in nature,' before the two transitioned into what she called being 'friends and colleagues.' The framing did little to clarify the tangled overlap between her personal and professional ties to the billionaire.
The testimony lands at an awkward moment for Musk's legal fight against Sam Altman and OpenAI, which centers on accusations that the company strayed from its original nonprofit mission. Zilis sat on OpenAI's board until 2023, giving her a front row seat to the events at the heart of the case. Yet the courtroom largely avoided the more uncomfortable questions about how her dual role as a Musk confidante and OpenAI insider shaped the dynamics now under scrutiny. For a trial built on questions of trust, loyalty, and corporate intent, her testimony left a lot of the most interesting threads dangling.
