Elon Musk drops ‘breach of contract’ lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman

In a rather surprising turn of events, Elon Musk has withdrawn his lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman. The lawsuit, filed in February in a California court, accused OpenAI of breaching its contract and deviating from its original mission of developing AI for the benefit of humanity.

Attorneys for Musk requested the California state court to dismiss the lawsuit without providing a specific reason for the move, according to a filing in San Francisco Superior Court. This dismissal comes just a day before a scheduled hearing where a judge was set to review OpenAI’s motion to dismiss the case.

Musk’s lawsuit claimed that OpenAI violated an agreement with its founding members, which included commitments to remain a non-profit and keep its technology open-source. OpenAI strongly denied these allegations, asserting that Musk sought “absolute control” of the company and had even proposed merging it with Tesla.

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The lawsuit had asked the court to compel OpenAI to make its research and technology public and to prevent the startup from using its assets, including GPT-4, for the financial benefit of Microsoft and other partners.

In response, OpenAI argued that Musk’s claims were incoherent and a transparent attempt to further his own AI ambitions. “Seeing the remarkable technological advances OpenAI has achieved, Musk now wants that success for himself,” OpenAI’s attorneys stated. They described the lawsuit as a contrived effort by Musk to advance his own interests in the competitive AI landscape.

The timing of the dismissal, coupled with Musk’s recent public statements, raises questions about his motivations. Just recently, Musk threatened to ban Apple devices from his companies if OpenAI’s technology became deeply integrated into iPhones and Macs. This threat followed Apple’s announcement of incorporating AI, including OpenAI’s technology, into its products.

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Musk’s own AI venture, xAI, has been gaining traction. Founded last July, xAI raised $6 billion in series B funding in May, at a post-money valuation of $24 billion. The company also launched its “Grok” chatbot and has reportedly secured billions in funding, including potentially diverting Nvidia chips originally allocated to Tesla.

Musk’s lawsuit had accused Altman and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman of straying from the original vision of an open-source, non-profit company. The lawsuit claimed that OpenAI “set the founding agreement aflame” when it released its powerful language model GPT-4 last year.

The lawsuit has been dropped without prejudice, meaning Musk could refile it in the future. The abrupt withdrawal leaves the future of this legal battle uncertain.