News-May-04-2026

May 4, 2026 — Daily digest of AI law developments.

This article consolidates news stories from May 3-4, 2026.

Contents

1. Musk Sought OpenAI Settlement Two Days Before Trial 2. EU's €20B Sovereign Compute Plan Faces Criticism 3. Anthropic Unveils $1.5B Joint Venture with Blackstone and Goldman Sachs 4. "This is Fine" Creator Alleges AI Startup Stole His Art 5. Building Trades Unions Join Forces with Tech Giants in AI Data Center Push 6. Musk v. Altman Trial Enters Week 2 with Expert Testimony

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Musk Sought OpenAI Settlement Two Days Before Trial

Elon Musk texted OpenAI President Greg Brockman two days before his lawsuit against OpenAI was slated to head to trial, seeking to gauge his interest in a settlement, according to a court filing late Sunday. When Brockman suggested both sides drop their claims, Musk replied: "By the end of this week, you and Sam will be the most hated men in America. If you insist, so it will be." OpenAI's lawyers moved to enter the text into evidence, arguing it "tends to prove motive and bias" and that Musk's motivation in pursuing the lawsuit is "to attack a competitor."

The trial in federal court in Oakland, California, is now in its second week. Musk testified last week and Brockman could be called to the stand as soon as Monday.

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EU's €20B Sovereign Compute Plan Faces Criticism

The European Union's plan to build massive AI computing hubs with a €20 billion investment is drawing widespread criticism from legislators and experts who question whether there is sufficient demand to justify the expense. The plan to build four to five "gigafactories" each powered by 100,000 GPUs was outlined by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen over a year ago. German Greens MEP Sergey Lagodinsky said "Nobody could explain to me what is the business case" while others voiced concern about the plan's reliance on Nvidia GPUs.

Separately, Denmark has announced a temporary moratorium on new large-scale data center construction as its national power grid struggles with surging energy demand.

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Anthropic Unveils $1.5B Joint Venture with Blackstone and Goldman Sachs

Anthropic is creating an approximately $1.5 billion joint venture with Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Hellman & Friedman, and other Wall Street firms to sell AI tools to private equity-backed companies, according to reports. Anthropic, Blackstone, and Hellman & Friedman are each expected to invest roughly $300 million.

The deal expands Anthropic's commercial footprint amid ongoing litigation with the Pentagon over military AI use restrictions and the government's supply-chain-risk blacklisting of the company.

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"This is Fine" Creator Alleges AI Startup Stole His Art

KC Green, creator of the iconic "This is Fine" webcomic, says AI startup Artisan AI stole his artwork for use in the company's marketing campaign without permission. Artisan previously gained notoriety for San Francisco billboards reading "Stop Hiring Humans." The dispute highlights ongoing tensions between artists and AI companies over the use of copyrighted works in AI marketing.

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Building Trades Unions Join Forces with Tech Giants in AI Data Center Push

Building trades unions have become powerful allies of technology companies in the race to build AI data centers. Unions are expanding training centers, recruiting apprentices, and countering community opposition to data center projects, often citing national security concerns in the AI race with China. Data center construction now consumes 40-50% of union work hours in some regions.

See individual article: News-Unions-Tech-AI-Data-Centers-May-2026

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Musk v. Altman Trial Enters Week 2 with Expert Testimony

The Musk v. Altman trial entered its second week on Monday, May 4, 2026, in federal court in Oakland, California, with Elon Musk's legal team calling Stuart Russell, a prominent AI researcher and professor at UC Berkeley, as an expert witness. Russell testified broadly about AI risks, including algorithmic discrimination, the possibility of AI reinforcing 'delusional beliefs,' and large-scale job displacement. Russell confirmed he is being paid $4,000 per hour for his first 40 hours of work on the case.

OpenAI lawyers objected to portions of Russell's testimony as speculative and outside the scope of the case, with Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers sustaining several objections. Opposition counsel also moved to strike Russell's mention of Mythos (Anthropic's large-scale model deployment), arguing it was irrelevant to the OpenAI dispute.

During cross-examination, Russell acknowledged that each AI company 'individually feels it needs to be in this race' and that competitive pressure prevents them from stopping to address safety problems — a point Musk's team is using to argue that OpenAI abandoned its original nonprofit mission in favor of commercial competition.

Earlier in the day, a court filing revealed that Musk texted OpenAI President Greg Brockman two days before trial seeking a settlement, warning that 'by the end of this week, you and Sam will be the most hated men in America' if they refused. OpenAI's lawyers moved for the text to be admitted as evidence of Musk's competitive motivations.

The trial is a bench trial with an advisory jury, meaning Judge Gonzalez Rogers will make the final ruling. The case was narrowed to breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment after Musk dropped fraud claims on April 25, 2026.