A case too weak for justice? Elon Musk drops lawsuits against OpenAI and Sam Altman

Elon Musk discreetly withdrew the complaint filed in February against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman. The billionaire accused them of having betrayed the group’s initial project.

It’s no longer a secret given Musk’s many harsh publications against OpenAI, the entrepreneur has a grudge against the management of the entity he co-founded in 2015.

These tensions crystallized a few months ago, with legal proceedings demanding that the start-up make public its research as well as the technology underlying its large language models (LLM).

Has Musk felt the tide turning?

But against all odds, the businessman’s lawyers asked a California court this week to withdraw the complaint. If no reason was specified, it is important to note that the body was to meet with OpenAI the next day to decide on a possible abandonment of the case. Musk’s decision therefore appears calculated to avoid an outcome to his disadvantage.

In his complaint, he accused OpenAI’s leaders of having abandoned the company’s founding mission, namely the development of artificial intelligence for the good of humanity, in favor of the lure of gain. The targeted executives, led by Sam Altman, disputed the billionaire’s allegations, calling them ” convoluted ” and D'” inconsistent “.

They believe that Elon Musk is simply disappointed at not being able to benefit from the success of the start-up, and therefore chose to “ invent a fiction to claim in an undeserved way the fruits of an enterprise that he first supported, then abandoned, and finally watched succeed without him “. They even claimed that Musk left OpenAI after a failed merger attempt with Tesla.

The billionaire continues to attack OpenAI

The withdrawal of the complaint may seem surprising, as Elon Musk increased his criticisms against OpenAI this week, after Apple’s WWDC 2024. Contesting the partnership established between the two companies, he even threatened to ban all Apple devices within his various companies. “ Apple has no idea what actually happens once it transmits your data to OpenAI “, he lambasted on X.com.

Last year, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla founded xAI, a start-up dedicated to artificial intelligence. It has since deployed Grok, a direct competitor to ChatGPT, and is even reportedly planning to build the world’s largest supercomputer to train it.

Note that the request for dismissal of the case initiated by the lawyers contains the mention “ without damage “. In other words, Musk will have the option to reactivate it later.

Source : BBC