On Tuesday, Elon Musk withdrew his lawsuit against OpenAI and two of the company's co-founders, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, in California state court, following his public criticism of OpenAI and its new collaboration with Apple.
Musk initiated a lawsuit against OpenAI, Altman, and Brockman, the current CEO and president of OpenAI, respectively, for breach of contract and fiduciary duty in February. Musk accused the early OpenAI team of embarking on a mission to develop artificial general intelligence, or AGI, for the benefit of humanity but later evolved into a for-profit entity largely controlled by Microsoft, the principal shareholder.
Elon Musk Retracting OpenAI's Lawsuit
Musk's choice to retract the lawsuit, lodged in a California state court in February, with case number CGC24612746, arrives a day before a scheduled hearing where the judge would have assessed OpenAI's plea to dismiss the case. This decision also follows Musk's announcement, just a day earlier, that he would prohibit Apple devices within his companies if OpenAI's technology were to be integrated into the iPhone and Mac at the OS level, amidst other unconventional warnings.
According to a court filing obtained by CNBC, the case was dismissed without prejudice, implying that Musk retains the option to refile the lawsuit later.
READ ALSO: OpenAI Being Sued by Elon Musk for Allegedly Breaching Contract to Prioritize Profit Over Humanity
A hearing was scheduled for Wednesday in San Francisco. During this hearing, the judge would evaluate whether the case should be dismissed, as the defendants requested.
Experts informed CNBC in March that the case rested on a questionable legal foundation because the contract central to the lawsuit was not a formal written agreement signed by all parties involved. Musk straightforwardly asserts that the complaint's "Founding Agreement" had no document attached to the exhibit and is essentially a concept conveyed through email correspondence.
Following Musk's lawsuit filing, OpenAI promptly refuted his allegations, stating that the billionaire sought "absolute control" of the company through a merger with Tesla and that there was "no agreement" with Musk at all.
Elon Musk's Prominent Status
Musk extensively reiterated his role in creating a company that has since emerged as one of the most prominent startups globally in the 35-page complaint (plus attached exhibits) filed in March. OpenAI topped CNBC's Disruptor 50 list in 2023, primarily due to the widespread adoption of ChatGPT.
In the previous year, Musk established his own AI venture, xAI. This venture developed the Grok AI chatbot, which is accessible through an X Premium subscription. It has secured a $6 billion Series B funding round from investors to finance the expensive chips required for its AI system.
According to its website, X.AI aims to understand the true nature of the universe. Last year, the company unveiled a chatbot named Grok, inspired by "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," which purportedly underwent two months of training and possesses real-time knowledge of the internet, as per the company's claims.
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