OAKLAND, CALIF. — Former OpenAI board member Helen Toner shed new light on just how close the company came to a shotgun merger with arch-rival Anthropic in the chaotic aftermath of CEO Sam Altman’s firing in November 2023 – calling such a deal an “extremely risky move.” In video testimony played Thursday in federal court in Oakland, Calif., for Elon Musk’s bombshell lawsuit against OpenAI , Toner recounted a late Sunday night call with Anthropic board members including the firm’s CEO Dario