CEO of Tesla Elon Musk has dropped his lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman. This past February, Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman, demanding they cease their commercial operations and release their AI technology as open-source. Experts believe that Musk decided to drop the lawsuit because he has successfully made it clear that he was deeply involved in the founding and success of OpenAI, making it clear that there was no need to continue the lawsuit.
According to CNBC and other sources on the 11th (local time), a court in San Francisco, California was scheduled to review whether to dismiss the lawsuit at the request of Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman. However, with Musk’s decision to withdraw the lawsuit, it appears the legal battle between Musk, OpenAI, and Altman will come to an end.
In his lawsuit filed against OpenAI and Altman last February, Musk claimed that he agreed to establish a non-profit research institute to develop Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) for the benefit of humanity in 2015, upon receiving the proposal from Altman and Brockman. Furthermore, Musk pointed out that OpenAI has become a subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation with closed-source operations.
In March, Musk submitted a 35-page complaint, including evidence proving his deep association with OpenAI.
However, OpenAI refuted Musk’s claims in documents submitted to the court last March, stating, “There was no founding contract or any agreement between Musk and OpenAI.”
Moreover, Musk’s intention of the lawsuit was questionable as OpenAI’s contract was not an official written agreement signed by all relevant parties.
Regarding this, Partner at Ford O’Brien LLP and former Deputy Attorney General of the United States Kevin O’Brien said, “Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI was certainly good advertising for Musk’s interests.” He added, “But the legal aspects are uncertain.”
An OpenAI representative said, “It seems like Musk wanted to publicize his relationship with OpenAI to the media.”
Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman and others in 2015. However, he resigned from his position on the board at OpenAI in 2018 and divested all his investment shares.
Afterward, when OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022 and pioneered the generative AI market, Musk heavily criticized OpenAI for its commercial operations and the political bias of ChatGPT. Last year, Musk declared that he would develop truth seeking AI to counter OpenAI, and founded the AI startup xAI.
