Mira Murati tells the court that she couldn’t trust Sam Altman’s words

米拉·穆拉蒂向法庭表示，她无法信任萨姆·奥特曼的话

Mira Murati, OpenAI’s former CTO, has testified under oath that CEO Sam Altman lied to her about the safety standards for a new AI model. In a video deposition shown during the ongoing Musk v. Altman trial on Wednesday, Murati said Altman falsely stated that OpenAI’s legal department determined a new AI model did not need to go through the company’s deployment safety board. “As you understand it, was Mr. Altman telling the truth when he made that statement to you?” Murati was asked in the deposition. “No,” Murati said.

OpenAI 前首席技术官米拉·穆拉蒂（Mira Murati）在宣誓后作证称，首席执行官萨姆·奥特曼（Sam Altman）在某款新 AI 模型的安全标准问题上对她撒了谎。在周三进行的“马斯克诉奥特曼案”庭审中，法庭播放了一段穆拉蒂的视频证词。穆拉蒂在证词中表示，奥特曼曾谎称 OpenAI 法律部门认定某款新 AI 模型无需经过公司部署安全委员会的审核。在证词中，当被问及“据你理解，奥特曼先生当时对你所说的是实话吗？”时，穆拉蒂回答：“不是。”

Murati said that during her tenure at OpenAI, Altman made her work more difficult. Her criticism “is completely management related,” she said. “I had an incredibly hard job to do in an organization that was very complex. I was asking Sam to lead, and lead with clarity, and not undermine my ability to do my job.”

穆拉蒂表示，在她在 OpenAI 任职期间，奥特曼让她的工作变得更加困难。她指出，她的批评“完全与管理有关”。她说：“我在一个非常复杂的组织中承担着极其艰巨的工作。我当时要求萨姆发挥领导作用，清晰地进行领导，而不是削弱我履行职责的能力。”

The safety situation around one of OpenAI’s GPT models was an example. Murati testified that after speaking with Altman, she checked with Jason Kwon, who joined OpenAI in 2021 as its general counsel and is now the company’s chief strategy officer. Murati said that there was “misalignment” between what Kwon and Altman said; “I confirmed that what Jason was saying and what Sam was saying were not the same thing.” To be safe, she said, she made sure the model went through the board.

OpenAI 某款 GPT 模型的安全状况就是一个例子。穆拉蒂作证说，在与奥特曼交谈后，她向杰森·权（Jason Kwon）进行了核实。杰森·权于 2021 年加入 OpenAI 担任总法律顾问，现任公司首席战略官。穆拉蒂称，权和奥特曼的说法存在“不一致”；“我确认了杰森所说的和萨姆所说的不一样。”她说，为了安全起见，她确保了该模型通过了委员会的审核。

It’s not the first time Altman has been accused of lying. Cofounder Ilya Sutskever, in part of a 52-page memo to OpenAI’s board that was read in a deposition, said that Altman “exhibits a consistent pattern of lying, undermining his execs, and pitting his execs against one another.” Former OpenAI board member Helen Toner, in a 2024 podcast where she discussed Altman’s brief firing in November 2023, also said that OpenAI executives had shared evidence with the board of Altman “lying and being manipulative in different situations.” Murati agreed with descriptions of Altman as pitting executives against each other and undermining her.

这并不是奥特曼第一次被指控撒谎。联合创始人伊利亚·苏茨克维（Ilya Sutskever）在提交给 OpenAI 董事会的一份 52 页备忘录中（该备忘录在证词中被宣读）表示，奥特曼“表现出了一贯的撒谎模式，削弱其高管的权力，并挑拨高管之间的关系”。前 OpenAI 董事会成员海伦·托纳（Helen Toner）在 2024 年的一档播客节目中讨论奥特曼 2023 年 11 月被短暂解雇一事时也表示，OpenAI 的高管们曾向董事会分享过奥特曼“在不同情况下撒谎和操纵他人”的证据。穆拉蒂认同关于奥特曼挑拨高管关系以及削弱她权力的描述。

The board, when it fired Altman, said that he “was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities. The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.” (When Altman was asked by The Verge why he thought the board lost trust in him, Altman said that “That will be a better question for them.”)

董事会在解雇奥特曼时曾表示，他在与董事会的沟通中“并不总是坦诚的，这阻碍了董事会履行其职责。董事会不再相信他有能力继续领导 OpenAI。”（当《The Verge》询问奥特曼他认为董事会为何对他失去信任时，奥特曼回答说：“这个问题问他们会更合适。”）

Murati was briefly appointed interim CEO after OpenAI’s board fired Altman. However, in testimony, she criticized the board’s decision and said “OpenAI was at catastrophic risk of falling apart.” She left OpenAI in 2024 and later founded her own OpenAI rival, Thinking Machines Lab.

在 OpenAI 董事会解雇奥特曼后，穆拉蒂曾短暂被任命为临时首席执行官。然而，她在证词中批评了董事会的决定，并表示“OpenAI 当时面临着分崩离析的灾难性风险”。她于 2024 年离开 OpenAI，随后创立了自己的竞争对手公司 Thinking Machines Lab。