A U.S. judge has allowed Elon Musk to take OpenAI to court for trial. The judge revealed that the Tesla founder has enough evidence to support his case. Musk is suing Sam Altman for straying from the organization’s founding mission and pursuing a profit-motivated agenda.
Elon Musk can take OpenAI lawsuit to court, report suggests
The Guardian reported that Elon Musk has got the green signal to take OpenAI to court for trial. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, shared that Musk has enough evidence to back his case. The world’s richest man claims that OpenAI’s leaders had previously assured him that they would continue to operate under a non-profit structure.
However, Musk alleged that Altman abandoned the founding mission in pursuit of higher revenue and profit. A trial is reportedly scheduled to begin in March. Judge Rogers also shared that she would issue a written order after the hearing that addresses OpenAI’s attempt to nullify the case.
For those unversed, Musk and Altman co-founded OpenAI as a non-profit research company. However, Musk left the company due to creative differences. Interestingly, Musk’s Grok serves as a direct competitor to OpenAI and ChatGPT.
The Tesla founder is seeking unspecified monetary damages from OpenAI’s “ill-gotten gains.” Musk claims he contributed $38M, which is roughly more than half of OpenAI’s early funding. Additionally, he also offered strategic guidance and extensive input to OpenAI. Musk claims that Altman and the team had assured him that the organization would maintain its non-profit credibility and be dedicated to the public’s benefit.
Musk’s lawsuit accuses co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman of being profit-hungry to fill their own pockets.
At the time, Altman and Brockman denied Musk’s claims. They also described him as a “frustrated commercial competitor seeking to slow down a mission-driven market leader.”
OpenAI responded to the verdict by stating, “Mr. Musk’s lawsuit continues to be baseless and a part of his ongoing pattern of harassment, and we look forward to demonstrating this at trial.” On the other hand, Musk hasn’t commented at the time of writing this article.
However, Steven Molo, a lead trial attorney for Musk, expressed, “We look forward to presenting all the evidence of the defendants’ wrongdoing to the jury.”
Originally reported by Anwaya Mane on Mandatory.
