Elon Musk had a bad week in court

Summary of Elon Musk had a bad week in court

by The Verge

1h 49m•May 1, 2026
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Overview of VergeCast: Elon Musk Had a Bad Week in Court

This episode is a wide-ranging VergeCast built around Elon Musk’s rough testimony in his OpenAI lawsuit, but it also branches into the broader AI industry shakeup, Brendan Carr’s latest FCC overreach, a gadget roundup, and a surprisingly deep discussion about the future of clips, feeds, and streaming apps. The throughline: tech companies keep trying to control the narrative, while users, courts, and regulators keep pushing back.

Elon Musk vs. OpenAI: Courtroom Chaos

The episode’s centerpiece is Elon Musk’s testimony in his lawsuit against OpenAI, where he looks unusually rattled on the stand.

Why the case exists

  • Musk’s version: he helped fund OpenAI as a nonprofit, then the company allegedly moved toward for-profit behavior and pushed him out.
  • OpenAI’s version: Musk wanted control, tried to dominate the company, then left when he didn’t get his way and is now suing because he’s angry Sam Altman became the face of AI.

Why Musk is struggling

  • He comes across as combative, thin-skinned, and unprepared for cross-examination.
  • The hosts repeatedly note that he seems unable to handle basic courtroom dynamics:
    • He objects to “leading questions.”
    • He argues over chronology.
    • He keeps reframing direct factual questions as “hypotheticals.”
    • The court even has to remind him that he is not a lawyer.

The standout courtroom moments

  • Musk admits he only read the “important warning” portion of a key 4-page document and not the rest.
  • He appears to contradict prior deposition testimony.
  • OpenAI’s lawyers get him to acknowledge that xAI distilled OpenAI models.
  • The judges and live coverage make it clear the courtroom feels tense and uncomfortable.

Why this matters

  • The hosts argue Musk’s entire strategy depends on convincing a jury that he is reasonable and trustworthy.
  • Instead, his behavior may be making Sam Altman look more credible by comparison.
  • Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers also draws attention for bluntly acknowledging that many people dislike Musk, while still trusting the jury to be fair.

The Bigger AI and OpenAI Story

Beyond the courtroom, the episode looks at several signs that the AI market is shifting.

Microsoft and OpenAI are loosening their bond

  • Microsoft and OpenAI have effectively turned their deep partnership into a more ordinary compute contract.
  • The once-central AGI-based relationship structure is fading into the background.
  • OpenAI appears to want more flexibility to make deals with other companies, especially now that business customers matter more.

OpenAI and AWS

  • OpenAI is moving more aggressively toward AWS, signaling that enterprise customers and cloud infrastructure are now the main battleground.
  • The hosts frame this as a very boring but very important enterprise shift.

People are getting tired of AI products

  • The episode cites data showing AI app uninstall rates are rising sharply.
  • The broader point: lots of people use AI tools because they feel they have to, not because they enjoy them.
  • Free consumer AI products are becoming worse experiences:
    • More prompts to keep chatting
    • More ads
    • More limits
    • More friction

Meta’s ad engine gets even creepier

  • Meta and Google are shifting toward AI systems where the ad creative itself becomes the targeting mechanism.
  • Instead of advertisers saying “find me men 18–35,” they just upload an ad and let the platform find likely buyers.
  • The hosts note this is effective for revenue, but creepy and bad for the ad ecosystem overall.

Gadget Roundup: What’s Cool, What’s Weird, What’s Actually Good

The middle section is a lively gadget segment covering several notable releases.

Steam Controller

  • The hosts are enthusiastic about Valve’s new Steam Controller.
  • Key strengths:
    • Magnetic charging puck
    • Customizable back buttons
    • Low-latency wireless connection
    • Can even help with BIOS navigation in a pinch
  • The big praise: it understands exactly who it is for—tinkerers and PC gamers who want deep customization.

Samsung Galaxy smart glasses leak

  • The reported Samsung smart glasses are dismissed as another camera-on-your-face product without a compelling use case.
  • The hosts are skeptical that anyone wants “Samsung” branded glasses, especially in a market already dominated by Meta/Ray-Ban optics.
  • The broader argument: smart glasses still don’t have a killer app strong enough to justify the social awkwardness.

Foldables and the future of phones

  • The hosts discuss Samsung’s rumored wider foldable and the broader “wide foldable” trend.
  • Their view:
    • Foldables are cool in theory.
    • In practice, most people don’t unfold them much.
    • They work better when closed, which means they often just become expensive regular phones.

Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo

  • The dual-screen gaming laptop gets the most love in the segment.
  • It’s absurd, expensive, and kind of perfect for power users who want maximum screen real estate.
  • The hosts call it the kind of over-the-top gadget that feels more exciting than most mainstream releases.

Hype Desk: TV and Movies Worth Watching

Ross Miller and Ashley Escoda join to recommend what’s worth paying attention to.

Widow’s Bay

  • A horror-comedy Apple TV+ show starring Matthew Rhys.
  • Described as a modern, Twin Peaks-style weird small-town mystery.
  • The hosts praise Apple TV+ for sticking to weekly releases and continuing to make strong prestige TV.

Coyote vs. Acme

  • The long-shelved Warner Bros. film is finally getting a release.
  • The movie was finished years ago, shelved for a tax write-off, then rescued by an independent distributor.
  • The panel thinks it could be funny whether the movie is great or terrible, because the backstory itself is so strange.

Brendan Carr Is Still a Dummy

The recurring “Brendan Carr is a dummy” segment returns with more FCC drama.

The Jimmy Kimmel backlash

  • Carr threatens action against Disney/ABC stations after a joke on Jimmy Kimmel’s show gets pulled into the orbit of a real-world security scare.
  • The hosts argue Carr is turning a joke unrelated to the incident into a First Amendment issue.
  • Even Republicans and broadcast-industry groups are pushing back.

Why this is dangerous

  • Carr is using FCC leverage in ways the hosts see as retaliatory and unserious.
  • The discussion frames him as making everyone else in telecom policy look worse by acting so capriciously.

More FCC weirdness

  • A bipartisan coalition of former FCC officials is suing to force action on the “news distortion” rule.
  • The rule is described as a loaded weapon Carr can misuse.
  • The FCC also continues its opaque router approval/waiver process, with the hosts mocking how suspicious and unclear it all looks.

Taylor Swift, Deepfakes, and Trademark Law

A lightning-round discussion asks whether Taylor Swift can trademark phrases like:

  • “Hey, it’s Taylor Swift”
  • “Hey, it’s Taylor”

The point of the filing

  • The move appears aimed at combating deepfake scam videos that begin with those phrases.
  • The hosts explain that trademark law is about commerce and branding, so this may help against scam ads but won’t solve deepfake abuse broadly.

Important distinction

  • Trademark law is not the same as likeness or deepfake law.
  • The deeper problem is that platforms and courts still don’t have a clean, national framework for AI-generated likeness misuse.

Netflix’s Vertical Clips Feed and the Clip Economy

The episode ends with a major discussion about Netflix’s new vertical video feed, “Clips.”

The hosts’ evolving view

  • David says he has shifted from thinking clips are just promo material to seeing them as the actual product for many users.
  • Neil argues that for many people, a two-minute clip may be their full relationship with a show or podcast.

Why Netflix is doing this

  • On mobile, Netflix mostly just wants users to open the app and stay in the ecosystem.
  • If clips keep people engaged, that can be a success even if they never watch full episodes.
  • The hosts compare this to TikTok-style consumption and also to Quibi—except Netflix has the advantage of owning a giant library of content.

The strategic takeaway

  • The future may be less about full-length viewing and more about fragment-based discovery and entertainment.
  • The hosts say this will likely reshape how streaming services think about content, promotion, and monetization.

Main Takeaways

  • Musk’s courtroom performance is hurting his own case and potentially helping OpenAI’s image.
  • AI hype is colliding with consumer fatigue, bad UX, and enterprise reality.
  • Big tech is increasingly optimizing for revenue by making user experiences worse.
  • Regulators like Brendan Carr are drawing bipartisan criticism for overreach.
  • The future of media may increasingly be driven by clips, not full-length consumption.