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By Ashley Strickland, CNN

(CNN) — Researchers have identified the remains of four members of a doomed 19th century expedition in the Arctic by matching DNA to the sailors’ living descendants — and solved a case of mistaken identity along the way.

The four sailors were part of Sir John Franklin’s 1845 expedition to find the Northwest Passage, a sea route north of the Canadian mainland and Arctic Circle that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans via the Arctic Ocean. British naval officials, merchants and polar explorers prized unlocking the passage because it would provide a shorter trade route between Europe and Asia.

The expedition’s two ships, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror, were carrying 129 crew members when the vessels became trapped in Arctic ice for nearly two years before crews deserted them in April 1848. The remaining 105 men dragged sledges of supplies overland along the west coast of King William Island, in what’s now the territory of Nunavut in Canada, but none survived.

The expedition buried only three members — those who died during the first year — with identifying headstones. Rescue teams and later various researchers in the years since have uncovered artifacts and remains scattered across the island and the Adelaide Peninsula. However, connecting bone fragments to individual crew members has proved difficult.

Within the past few years, matches with DNA from descendants helped scientists identify John Gregory, the engineer aboard the Erebus, as well as James Fitzjames, the ship’s captain — whose bones show evidence of cannibalism.

Now, the same research team, based at Ontario’s University of Waterloo and Lakehead University, has matched remains for three more Erebus crew members as well as the only Terror sailor identified so far using DNA. For 166 years, documents found with this sailor’s remains baffled researchers — until genetics provided an answer.

As more descendants share their DNA and discover their family’s connection to the Franklin expedition, researchers hope they are closer to determining what caused the crews to desert the ships — and solving the mysteries that linger around the tragedy.

“We are trying to add more pieces to the puzzle, the genetic side of it, since it hadn’t been done before,” said lead study author Dr. Douglas Stenton, adjunct assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Waterloo. “It’s opening up a new chapter in the story of the Franklin expedition, and something that I like about this is that chapter is helping to be written by the families of the men who never made it home.”

Preserving a tragic site

Stenton was serving as the director of heritage for the government of Nunavut in 2008 when Parks Canada was preparing a multidisciplinary search for the Erebus and Terror wreck sites. A combination of sonar and oral tradition from the Inuit community helped locate the remains of the Erebus in 2014 and those of the Terror in 2016.

Stenton led the investigation of the Franklin sites on land. After consulting documentation from search parties and previous research, Stenton and other researchers mapped the sites using photography and lidar, or light detection and ranging, for about six weeks per year between 2008 and 2023.

“Once you get hooked by the Franklin expedition, you want to keep going back to try and find as many more pieces of the puzzle as possible that you can,” Stenton said.

The team also collected artifacts that were often found sitting in plain sight for conservation, protection and research purposes. The researchers were granted permission in 2013 to collect remains for the same purposes.

“We wanted to think about how we might be able to contribute to work that others had done before us,” Stenton said. “Somethin

By Hadas Gold, Samantha Delouya, CNN

Oakland, Calif. (CNN) — OpenAI’s cofounders once asked Elon Musk, who helped create and fund the company, an important question: If he were to control OpenAI, what would happen to the company on his death? Musk responded that he hadn’t thought about it much and that he might pass it on to his children.

Musk’s reply was a “hair-raising moment” in the early days of OpenAI, CEO Sam Altman said in testimony on Tuesday, in a trial that could determine the future of his company and potentially the AI industry.

“I didn’t feel comfortable with that,” Altman said

Musk is suing the company and its leaders over allegations that OpenAI, Altman and president Greg Brockman breached their charitable trust when OpenAI shifted from its nonprofit mission to include a profit-oriented structure. Microsoft, an early investor in OpenAI, is named as a co-defendant.

Musk wants the judge to order OpenAI to revert to a nonprofit and for Altman and Brockman to lose their board positions. He’s also asking that more than $130 billion to go back into OpenAI’s nonprofit arm. A ruling in Musk’s favor could scramble OpenAI’s plans for an initial public offering later this year.

OpenAI has denied Musk’s claims, saying Musk wanted a for-profit structure and only brought the case after he failed to gain control of OpenAI. OpenAI has claimed Musk, who started his own AI company after leaving OpenAI in 2018, is now attempting to harm a competitor.

Musk’s attorneys have tried to paint Altman as deceptive and have brought up his brief ousting in 2023, when the company’s board temporarily pushed him out as CEO over concerns about his leadership.

OpenAI board members and executives testified about their qualms with Altman, including his resistance to the board’s oversight and alleged dishonesty with senior leadership, including former Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati.

OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever, who played a major role in Altman’s removal, testified on Monday that he spent months gathering evidence showing what he said was Altman’s pattern of deception and poor management. Sutskever later voted to have Altman return, saying he regretted the decision. Altman returned to his role just days after his removal and a new board was instated.

Altman’s own words have also been used as evidence. “I remain enthusiastic about the non profit structure!” he wrote in a 2017 email to Musk during discussions about OpenAI’s structure, including the development of a for-profit entity.

When reports surfaced in 2022 indicating Microsoft was considering further investment into OpenAI, already valued at $20 billion at the time, Musk texted Altman that he felt like the situation was “a bait and switch” after saying he “provided almost all the funding.”

“I agree this feels bad,” Altman responded, adding that OpenAI had offered Musk equity in its capped for-profit entity which Musk declined at the time.

Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI, its motivation for investing in the company and its access to OpenAI’s technology and intellectual property were a major focus during CEO Satya Nadella’s testimony on Monday.

Altman’s testimony is expected to continue into Wednesday, with closing arguments beginning on Thursday before jury deliberations.

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