Jury selection in Musk vs. Altman shows nobody wants to be fair to Elon

The Elon Musk vs. Sam Altman trial kicked off Monday, and jury selection was always going to be awkward. What nobody expected was just how openly hostile the pool of potential jurors would be.

Elizabeth Lopatto from The Verge was in the courtroom, and she shared some of the questionnaire responses. They’re brutal.

One prospective juror wrote: “Elon Musk is a greedy, racist, homophobic piece of garbage.”

Another: “Elon Musk is a world-class jerk.”

A third: “I very much dislike Tesla. As a woman of color, I am very aware of the damaging statements and actions Elon Musk has enacted and been a part of.”

This is not the kind of impartiality you want in a courtroom. The case is about whether Musk and Altman broke promises when they founded OpenAI, but the jury’s feelings about Musk personally could easily bleed into their judgment.

Musk has built a reputation as a brilliant engineer and a chaotic personality. His Twitter takeover, his public feuds, and his political statements have made him a polarizing figure. That’s fine for business—controversy sells cars and tweets—but it’s a liability in a courtroom where you need twelve people to agree with you.

The defense team will have to work hard to seat jurors who can separate their personal feelings from the facts of the case. That’s easier said than done when the plaintiff is someone people openly describe as garbage.

I’ve seen this before. High-profile figures often struggle to find impartial juries because everyone has already formed an opinion. But Musk’s case is worse than most because the opinions aren’t just strong—they’re visceral.

It’s going to be a long trial. And Musk might find that the court of public opinion has already decided his fate before the evidence is even presented.