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Elon Musk’s only expert witness at the OpenAI trial fears an AGI arms race

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When do we take AI doomers seriously?

That’s a key subtext of Elon Musk’s attempt to shut down OpenAI’s for-profit AI business. His attorneys argue that the organization was set up as a charity focused on AI safety, and lost its way in pursuit of lucre. To prove that, they cite old emails and statements from the organization’s founders about the need for a public-spirited counterweight to Google DeepMind.

Today, they called their only expert witness: Peter Russell, a University of California, Berkeley computer science professor who has studied AI for decades. His job was to offer background on AI, and establish that this technology is dangerous enough to worry about.

Russell co-signed an open letter in March 2023 calling for a six-month pause in AI research. In a sign of the contradictions here, Musk also signed the same letter, even as he was launching xAI, his own for-profit AI lab.

Russell told jurors and Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rodgers that there were a variety of risks associated with the development of AI, ranging from cybersecurity threats to problems with misalignment and the winner-take-all nature of developing Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Ultimately, he said that there was a tension between the pursuit of AGI and safety.

Russell’s larger concerns about the existential threats of unconstrained AI didn’t get aired in open court after objections from OpenAI’s attorneys led the judge to limit Russell’s testimony. But Russell has long been a critic of the arms-race dynamic created by frontier labs around the globe competing to reach AGI first, and called for governments to regulate the field more tightly.

OpenAI’s attorneys spent their cross-examination establishing that Russell wasn’t directly evaluating the organization’s corporate structure or its specific safety policies.

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But this reporter (as well as the judge and the jurors) will be weighing how much value to put on the relationship between corporate greed and AI safety concerns. Virtually every one of the OpenAI founders have strenuously warned about the risks of AI, while also emphasizing the benefits, attempting to build AI as fast as possible — and hatching plans for AI-focused for-profit enterprises they would control.

From the outside, a clear issue here is the growing realization inside OpenAI after its founding that the organization simply needed more compute spend if it was to succeed. That money could only come from for-profit investors. The founding team’s fear of AGI in the hands of a single organization pushed them to seek the capital that ultimately tore the team apart, creating the arms race we know today—and bringing us to this lawsuit.

The same dynamic is already playing out at a national level: Senator Bernie Sanders’ push for a law imposing a moratorium on data center construction cites AI fears enunciated by Musk, Sam Altman, Geoffrey Hinton and others. Hoden Omar, who works at the trade organization the Center for Data Innovation, objected to Sanders citing their fears without their hopes, telling TechCrunch that “it is unclear why the public should discount everything tech billionaires say except when their words can be recruited to fill gaps in a precarious argument.”

Now, both sides of the case are asking the court to do just that: take part of Altman and Musk’s arguments seriously, but discount the parts that are less useful for their legal argument.

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Imo senatorial aspirant, Nwachukwu drags NDC to court over ticket denial  

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A Senatorial Aspirant, Isaac Nwachukwu, has dragged Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, before a Federal High Court Sitting in Owerri, Imo State, over the fallout of the party’s National Assembly primaries.

Nwachukwu, in a suit filed through his Counsel, Cajethan Oguzie, accused the party of denying him the Imo North senatorial ticket after emerging a consensus candidate and paying N5m for the nomination form.

The suit also disclosed that Nwachukwu had paid N20m for the support of the party, but his support was unexplainably reduced to N10m when the list of those who supported the party was published.

The NDC Senatorial Aspirant, in his prayers before the court, demanded that a declaration should be made that he is the consensus candidate of the party in the state with regard to the Imo North Senatorial Zone in the 2027 General election.

“A declaration that the first defendant, NDC, be restrained from fielding another candidate except the plaintiff in the General election into the Imo North Senatorial Zone as he is the consensus candidate for the said election.

“A declaration that the second defendant, INEC, be perpetually restrained from recognising and accepting the candidacy of another person except the plaintiff in the Imo North Senatorial election pending the determination of the matter,” the suit stated.

In an affidavit supporting the originating summons, Nwachukwu stated that he purchased the expression of interest form to aspire for the position for Imo North senatorial zone, a copy of which is attached in the suit already filed.

The NDC Senatorial Aspirant added that upon the purchase of the form, he made a monetary contribution in support of the party’s growth in the tune of N20m into the party’s FCMB account number through his Counsel, receipt also attached in the suit as an exhibit.

“The first sign of irregularity and no compliance with the NDC constitution and electoral act came up when the N20m I paid for party support was allocated to one of the aspirants for my Senatorial District by the name Matthew Omegara, and the N10m that Matthew Omegara paid for party support was allocated to me by the Screening Committee headed by Sam Egwu and Buba Galadimma.

” In compliance with NDC’s directives, I participated in the NDC screening exercise and was successfully cleared as an aspirant to participate in the primary election.

After my consensus candidacy was ratified, my name was shortlisted as a Candidate for Imo North district. A copy of the result is hereby annexed as Exhibit 1U5,” the affidavit added.

Nwachukwu alleged that his name was substituted with Omegara after he had been declared the winner of the primary election.

The Imo North Senatorial Aspirant claimed that the National leader of the party, Seriake Dickson, had summoned him for a meeting telling him that his candidacy was affected after a party chieftain from his state said he didn’t know him.

Among other demands, Nwachukwu is asking the court to order NDC to issue him a certificate as its candidate for the Imo North Senatorial District.

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ADC raises alarm over alleged membership forgery in Zamfara

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Supporters and members of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, in Anka and Talata Mafara Local Government Areas of Zamfara State have alleged attempts to manipulate the party’s membership records and card numbers ahead of internal political activities.
The allegation was contained in a statement issued on Wednesday in Gusau by Nura Rabiu Cibiki, Director of Media and Strategy, Campaign and Mobilisation Committee for Abdulrahaman Yahaya, an aspirant for the House of Representatives seat representing Anka/Talata Mafara Federal Constituency.

The group warned against any attempt to alter or duplicate legitimate membership figures, saying such actions could deepen tensions within the party in the constituency.

“We strongly oppose any move to manipulate or duplicate legitimate membership figures, warning that such actions would only worsen existing tensions within the party and the Anka/Talata Mafara Federal Constituency,” the statement said.

The supporters maintained that ADC members in Anka and Talata Mafara were aware of the party’s authentic membership strength and were prepared to protect the integrity of the party’s records.

The statement added that while justice may be delayed, the truth could not be denied.

Meanwhile, Yahaya has filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Gusau challenging alleged irregularities in the party’s primary election process in the constituency.

The court has fixed June 23, 2026, for mention of the case.

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