Musk vs OpenAI: Trial scheduled to begin on April 27

A trial in the lawsuit brought by Elon Musk against OpenAI CEO Samuel Altman and other defendants – including tech giant Microsoft – is scheduled to begin April 27, according to a federal court order issued Tuesday.

The legal showdown will center on Musk’s claim that OpenAI and Altman abandoned the startup’s original nonprofit, public-benefit mission and misled him while turning the lab into a highly lucrative, Microsoft-linked for-profit enterprise.  

Musk alleges that Altman “intentionally courted and deceived” him by proposing a nonprofit that would serve as a counterweight to Google’s DeepMind AI research unit and make AI technology open source for the benefit of humanity.

The suit claims OpenAI’s leaders have since restructured the organization, created for-profit affiliates, and struck multibillion-dollar deals in a way that violated that mission.

The Tesla and SpaceX boss was an original co-founder of OpenAI and its biggest funder when it began in 2015, providing tens of millions of dollars in seed capital. He left three years later.

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OpenAI went on to release ChatGPT in 2022 and Musk eventually launched a rival, xAI.

Microsoft, a major investor in OpenAI since 2019, has poured billions into the firm and become its biggest shareholder after a restructuring last year.  

The trial, to be held before a jury, will be presided over by US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California.

(Expect the headline, this story has not been edited by Firstpost staff)