Sutskever Testifies He Avoided Internet After Altman Firing

According to Business Insider, Ilya Sutskever testified on May 11, 2026, at the trial brought by Elon Musk against Sam Altman about power clashes at OpenAI. Business Insider reports that Sutskever voted to oust Sam Altman and that, after the vote, he "avoided the internet over the weekend"; when asked at trial whether he had avoided the internet, Sutskever answered "Yes," per Business Insider. Business Insider also reports that Sutskever later changed his mind and expressed worry that OpenAI would collapse without Altman.

Business Insider describes Sutskever as an early OpenAI employee who left Google and gave up a reported $6 million salary to join OpenAI, a background point raised during testimony. The article frames the episode as part of the wider chaos around Altman's 2023 firing and the board disputes that followed, per Business Insider.

Public board disputes involving high-profile AI organizations attract sustained attention from developers, partners, and customers. Industry observers note that governance controversies can raise questions about continuity of access to models, research priorities, and leadership stability in organizations developing advanced AI.

Trials between major tech figures can produce additional testimony and documents that change public understanding of past decisions, independent of their technical work. For practitioners, such episodes influence where external stakeholders place trust and how quickly enterprise customers decide to operationalize or pause deployments.

Follow subsequent testimony, any newly disclosed board minutes or filings, and statements from other board members or senior researchers. Observers should also track whether governance disclosures or regulatory filings change in scope, and whether partners or cloud providers issue statements about continuity or access to services.

All reported facts in this summary, including the vote, the quoted answer, the expressed worry about collapse, and the background salary figure, are attributed to Business Insider's May 11, 2026, report.