Elon Musk has dismissed his infringement lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman.
The legal motionfiled in February 2023, accused OpenAI of abandoning its founding mission of developing AI for the good thing about humanity, not for profit.
It said: “OpenAI, Inc. has been transformed right into a closed-source de facto subsidiary of the most important technology company on the earth: Microsoft. Under its recent board, it just isn’t only developing an AGI, but is even refining it to maximise profits for Microsoft, relatively than for the good thing about humanity.”
Musk's lawyers gave no reason for dropping the lawsuit, which was scheduled to be heard Wednesday before a San Francisco Superior Court judge.
The legal battle between Musk and the corporate he co-founded in 2015 has been occurring for months, with Musk claiming that OpenAI has strayed from its altruistic goals and deviated removed from its founding principles.
It's doubtful the lawsuit ever succeeded. Musk's feud with OpenAI and Altman has intensified through the years, and the lawsuit, while likely legitimate in its proposition, seemed more like a novelty than a real legal challenge.
OpenAI countered that Musk had previously supported the thought of a for-profit structure and even proposed a merger with Tesla.
“We are sad that things have come to this with someone we deeply admired – someone who inspired us to aim higher, then told us we might fail, created a competitor, after which sued us after we began to make meaningful progress on OpenAI’s mission without him,” OpenAI wrote in a blog entry after the lawsuit.
The increasingly public dispute between Musk and other Big Tech protagonists in the sphere of generative AI intensified earlier this week when Apple announced a partnership with ChatGPT to enhance its voice assistant Siri and its operating systems.
Comment on the Apple–OpenAI partnershipMusk was critical of each OpenAI and Apple over X, stating: “Apple has no idea what's actually happening when they provide your data to OpenAI. They're telling you something.”
It is clearly absurd that Apple just isn’t intelligent enough to create its own AI, but continues to be capable of make sure that OpenAI protects your security and privacy!
Apple has no idea what actually happens after they hand over your data to OpenAI. They betray you.
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 10, 2024
Despite Musk's concerns about Apple collaborating with OpenAI, investors reacted positively as Apple's market value rose to over $3 trillion, hitting a brand new high.
Why Musk withdrew his OpenAI lawsuit
This can have been one lawsuit too many for Musk.
Earlier this week, it was announced that Musk is facing a separate lawsuit in Delaware from the Employees' Retirement System of Rhode Island (ERSRI), an institutional investor in Tesla.
The lawsuit alleges that Musk and his brother Kimbal, a Tesla director, improperly sold a complete of $30 billion price of stock between late 2021 and late 2022, allegedly cashing in on developments that caused the stock to say no in value.
The ERSRI lawsuit Musk further claims that he sold the shares at inflated prices to hide his plan to make use of the proceeds to purchase Twitter.
It also alleges that Musk sold Tesla shares when he knew delivery dates weren’t being met and raises concerns about poor corporate governance, comparable to diverting Tesla employees to work at X and forcing Tesla starts paying for promoting on X.
And wait, there's more. Tesla shareholder Michael Perry filed one other lawsuit last month, claiming Musk engaged in insider trading.
There is barely a lot litigation a tech boss can handle, even someone like Musk who’s so sensitive to public criticism.
But even without this lawsuit, OpenAIThe leadership of stays under pressure. After last 12 months's leadership dispute, Altman has not completely disappeared from the highlight and has drawn much more criticism himself.
Altman was recently condemned by OpenAI insiders, and shortly after leading AI researchers left the corporate, a controversial clause in worker contracts prohibiting them from speaking badly concerning the company was removed. was scrappedThis forged an increasingly long shadow over Altman’s leadership style.
Employees from OpenAI and Google later joined forces to pass on their “right to warning” after they encounter AI-related risks of their organizations.
OpenAI's lawsuit was dismissed, however the sentiment stays. Musk and his lawyers can be coping with other, possibly more serious, matters within the meantime.
