A federal jury ruled against Elon Musk in his lawsuit accusing OpenAI of abandoning its nonprofit roots, finding that neither the tech company nor CEO Sam Altman could be held liable in the matter because Musk waited too long to bring the case.
The jury delivered a unanimous verdict after deliberating for less than two hours on Monday morning, following 11 days of testimony and arguments in Oakland, California. They found all of Musk’s claims against the company and Altman to have exceeded the statute of limitations.
Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI in 2015, but left the artificial intelligence (AI) startup in 2018 after he was unable to persuade its other leaders to have OpenAI merge with Tesla or create a for-profit entity led by him to attract the investment needed to meet the company’s technological needs.
In his lawsuit, Musk accused OpenAI of violating its founding mission as a nonprofit to develop AI for the benefit of humanity when the startup created a for-profit entity in 2019.
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His lawsuit sought the removal of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman from their roles at the company. He also sought over $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, which Musk said he would provide to OpenAI’s nonprofit entity. Altman and Brockman were among OpenAI’s co-founders.
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Altman and OpenAI, now a company valued at $852 billion, argued there was never a promise to keep the company nonprofit permanently.
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The company behind ChatGPT further countered Musk’s claims by noting that the Tesla CEO pursued a merger with OpenAI and was involved with discussions about creating a for-profit entity for the company before his departure from its board of directors. They also said they viewed the lawsuit as a tactic to boost his own AI startup, xAI, as a competitor to OpenAI.
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