Musk Testifies xAI Used OpenAI Models to Train Grok
Elon Musk acknowledged in court that his AI company, xAI, has used models developed by OpenAI to train its own Grok system through a process called model distillation.
The testimony came during a California federal court hearing on Thursday, as part of an ongoing lawsuit Musk filed against OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altman, and co-founder Greg Brockman. The suit alleges a breach of the company's original nonprofit mission.
The Testimony
When questioned directly about whether xAI had distilled OpenAI’s technology, Musk initially responded that "generally all the AI companies" engage in the practice. Pressed further, he clarified: "Partially."
He added: "It is standard practice to use other AIs to validate your AI."
About Model Distillation
Model distillation is an industry-standard technique in which a larger, more complex AI model (the "teacher") is used to train a smaller, more efficient model (the "student"). This process typically involves prompting publicly accessible chatbots or application programming interfaces (APIs) to generate data for training new models.
The practice occupies a legal gray area. While it is not explicitly illegal, it may violate the terms of service of the companies that own the models being distilled.
Industry Context and Reactions
Distillation has become a flashpoint in the AI industry. Several major companies have accused others of using their models without authorization:
- OpenAI and Anthropic have accused Chinese firms of distilling their models. Anthropic specifically named DeepSeek, Moonshot, and MiniMax.
- Google has taken steps to prevent what it describes as "distillation attacks," characterizing the practice as a method of intellectual property theft that violates its terms of service.
Anthropic has noted in a blog post that while distillation is a legitimate training method used by frontier labs, it can also be used for illicit purposes—allowing other labs to acquire capabilities at reduced time and cost.
Reports indicate that Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI are sharing information to counter attempted distillation from China.
Musk's Ranking of AI Companies
Later in his testimony, Musk ranked leading AI providers by his own assessment:
- Anthropic – first
- OpenAI – second
- Google – third
- Chinese open-source models – fourth
He described xAI as a smaller company with only a few hundred employees.