Shivon Zilis Linked Musk and OpenAI in Trial Testimony
shivon zilis was cast in the Musk v. Altman trial as an OpenAI insider who helped manage communications between Elon Musk and the company. She joined OpenAI in 2016 and later served on its nonprofit board from 2020 until 2023. The testimony and messages now place her inside the dispute over who controlled information, influence, and talent after Musk left the board in February 2018.
February 16, 2018
On February 16, 2018, Zilis texted Musk: "Do you prefer I stay close and friendly to OpenAI to keep info flowing or begin to disassociate? Trust game is about to get tricky so any guidance for how to do right by you is appreciated". Musk replied: "Close and friendly, but we are going to actively try to move three or four people from OpenAI to Tesla. More than that will join over time, but we won’t actively recruit them."
When asked about that exchange on the witness stand, Musk said he "wanted to know what’s going on." He also wrote in the same thread, "There is little chance of OpenAI being a serious force if I focus on Tesla AI." Zilis answered that there was "very low probability of a good future if someone doesn’t slow Demis down."
August 28, 2017
The earlier messages show the relationship was already operational before that February exchange. On August 28, 2017, Zilis wrote that she had met with OpenAI president Greg Brockman and cofounder Ilya Sutskever to discuss how equity would be divided in the new company. She summarized their view that one person should not have unilateral power over AGI if they developed it. Musk replied, "This is very annoying. P"
OpenAI’s lawyers used those texts to argue that Zilis served as a covert liaison between Musk and OpenAI even after his board exit. She also wrote on April 23, 2018, that she had reallocated most of her time away from OpenAI to Neuralink and Tesla, while still offering to pull more hours back to OpenAI oversight if Musk wanted it.
April 23, 2018
That April email also gives a practical read on the work itself. Zilis sent Musk updates on OpenAI’s fundraising and on a project to develop an AI that could play video games. For readers tracking the company’s early governance fight, the messages show a channel that mixed staffing, fundraising, and technical progress in the same private conversation.
One unresolved point in the trial is how far that private line of communication extended beyond the messages already shown in court. The record already places Zilis in OpenAI’s advisory and board structure, but the broader question is how much influence she actually carried when Musk and OpenAI were still arguing over direction, talent, and control.
