Trump’s Tech Posse in China, Who’s Winning in Musk v. Altman, and Hantavirus Conspiracy Theories | WIRED

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This week on Uncanny Valley, the team dives into Trump’s selected entourage for his high-stakes visit to China, ranging from Silicon Valley’s tech billionaires to Melania director Brett Ratner. We also break down the latest developments in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against Sam Altman, alleging that OpenAI abandoned its original nonprofit mission for profit-driven goals, and whether either side is actually gaining an edge in the trial. Plus, Leah shares with us some of the most outlandish conspiracy theories that have been swirling around the hantavirus outbreak.

Articles mentioned in this episode:

- Everyone at the Musk v. Altman Trial Is Using Fancy Butt Cushions

- Elon Musk Had ‘Hair-Raising’ Idea of Passing OpenAI On to His Kids, Sam Altman Says

- Hantavirus Conspiracy Theories Are Already Spreading Online

- Inside the Race to Develop a Test for the Rare Andes Hantavirus

You can follow Brian Barrett on Bluesky at @brbarrett, Zoë Schiffer on Bluesky at @zoeschiffer, and Leah Feiger on Bluesky at @leahfeiger. Write to us at [email protected].

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Transcript

Note: This is an automated transcript, which may contain errors.

Zoë Schiffer: Welcome to WIRED's Uncanny Valley. I'm Zoë Schiffer, director of business and industry.

Brian Barrett: I'm Brian Barrett, executive editor.

Leah Feiger: And I'm Leah Feiger, director of politics and science.

Zoë Schiffer: Today on the show, we're diving into the final week of the Musk v. Altman trial. The high profile testimonies we've heard this week, including from OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman himself, have resurfaced a lot of past events and a lot of drama, but we're asking will this actually be consequential to the trial's verdict?

Brian Barrett: Also happening this week, President Trump is headed to China. He's accompanied by a select number of Silicon Valley's top CEOs. We'll discuss how their presence could influence conversations between world leaders at a moment when the economic and foreign policy stakes could not be higher for the US.

Leah Feiger: We'll also get into the wild conspiracy theories that have been increasingly swirling around the hantavirus from wellness influencers to grifters. A lot of them have been recycling very similar conspiracy theories from the Covid-19 pandemic. We're going to tell you what they're sharing and also how to spot this kind of harmful misinformation.

Zoë Schiffer: So we're wrapping up the final week of one of the most consequential and honestly one of the pettiest trials in Silicon Valley history. The one between Elon Musk and Sam Altman. The last time we spoke about the trial, we were still at the very beginning figuring out who was going to speak and what they were going to say. But now we've heard Musk’s team put forth their key argument, namely that Sam Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman deceived him by creating OpenAI's for-profit arm instead of keeping OpenAI as a classic charity. This week we heard from some of the key people who have been central to both the past and the present of OpenAI. We're talking about Ilya Sutskever, who's the former OpenAI Chief Scientist, who is part of the effort to briefly oust Sam Altman as CEO back in November 2023. We also heard from Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, who is one of the earliest backers of OpenAI. And finally, Sam Altman himself took the stand.

Leah Feiger: Appearing in federal court in Oakland on Tuesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman testified that he believes himself to be, "an honest and trustworthy business person."

Brian Barrett: Testifying for the first time in the landmark trial, Altman said that it was Musk who had sought to seize control of OpenAI and make money from it.

Zoë Schiffer: Brian, Leah, I feel like I'm so close to this. I have two reporters who are in the courtroom every single day. I'm curious for your perspective on everything we've heard so far, what do you think about what's happened in this trial, which could be wrapping up at least in terms of major testimony Thursday this week?

Leah Feiger: This is must-see TV. I have been particularly taken with the Business Desk's reporting on this and I think it was just a few days ago a piece that came out about Sam Altman's testimony on how apparently Elon Musk was just going to hand OpenAI to his children. Am I misstating this? Did that happen?

Brian Barrett: No, that's right.

Leah Feiger: What?

Zoë Schiffer: It