Elon Musk sued OpenAI and Sam Altman
In this illustration photo, the logo of ‘OpenAI’ is displayed on a mobile phone screen in front of a computer screen showing a photo of Elon Musk and Sam Altman in Ankara, Turkiye on March 14, 2024.
Muhammed Selim Korkutata | Anadolu | beautiful images
Elon Musk on Tuesday withdrew his lawsuit against OpenAI and its two co-founders, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, in California state court. Musk’s decision to file a motion to dismiss the lawsuit came just one day after Mr publicly criticized OpenAI and a new partnership with Apple.
The case was dismissed without prejudice, according to court records obtained by CNBC.
In February, Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, Altman and Brockman – OpenAI’s current CEO and chairman – for breach of contract and fiduciary duty.
A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday in San Francisco in which the judge will consider whether the case should be dismissed as requested by the defendants.
Experts told CNBC in March that the case was built on questionable legal grounds, because the contract at the heart of the case was not a formal written agreement signed by all parties involved.
Rather, Musk alleged that the original OpenAI team had already started development artificial general intelligenceor AGI, “for the good of humanity”, but the project has been converted into a for-profit organization largely controlled by the main shareholder Microsoft.
Musk used much of the 35-page complaint (plus attachments) he filed in March to remind the world of his stance on founding a company that has become one of the hottest startup on the planet, (OpenAI ranked first on CNBC List of 50 troublemakers in 2023) largely thanks to the viral spread of ChatGPT.
“It’s certainly good advertising for Elon Musk’s benefit,” Kevin O’Brien, a partner at Ford O’Brien Landy LLP and former assistant U.S. attorney, told CNBC at the time. “However, I’m not sure about the legal part.”
Last year, Musk launched his own AI startup and OpenAI competitor, xAI, last month. announced Series B funding round worth $6 billion. Investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital and Fidelity Management & Research Company.
According to its website, X.AI seeks to “understand the true nature of the universe.” Last year, X.AI released a chatbot called Grok, which the company said was modeled after “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” The company claims that the chatbot launched after two months of training and has real-time knowledge of the Internet.
Representatives for Musk and Altman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
—CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.
Correction: The lawsuit was filed in February. An earlier version of this story misstated the month.
