Elon Musk Drops Lawsuit Against OpenAI After Publication of Emails
Elon Musk has moved to dismiss his lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, bringing an end to a legal dispute that has lasted several months between the co-founders of the artificial intelligence startup.
In February, Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015, filed a lawsuit accusing the company of deviating from its original nonprofit mission by reserving its most advanced AI technology for private customers. Musk’s suit sought a jury trial and demanded that the company, Altman, and co-founder and president Greg Brockman return any profits they had received.
OpenAI quickly countered Musk’s claims, labeling them as “incoherent” and “frivolous,” and filed a motion to dismiss the case. The company also published a blog post containing several of Musk’s emails from the early days of OpenAI. These emails seemed to contradict Musk’s accusations by showing that he had acknowledged the need for the company to generate significant revenue to fund its ambitious AI projects.
Musk’s lawyers did not provide a reason for requesting to drop the lawsuit in their Tuesday filing. A hearing for OpenAI’s motion to dismiss the case was scheduled for Wednesday.
The decision to drop the lawsuit came shortly after Musk criticized OpenAI on his social media platform, X. Following Apple’s announcement of a partnership that integrates ChatGPT with Siri, Musk expressed concerns about user data security. He threatened to ban Apple devices from his companies if Apple integrated OpenAI at the operating system level, deeming it a security risk. Apple clarified that user queries sent to ChatGPT would not be stored by OpenAI.
The legal battle underscored the differing visions for OpenAI’s future. Musk accused OpenAI of prioritizing profit by developing powerful “artificial general intelligence” technology. Conversely, OpenAI suggested that Musk’s lawsuit stemmed from his dissatisfaction over no longer being part of the startup, which he left in 2018 after a failed attempt to have Tesla acquire it.
Despite OpenAI’s dismissal of Musk’s claims as “fiction,” the company has faced internal scrutiny over its direction. Last year, a leadership crisis led to Altman’s temporary removal over concerns about AI risks. He was reinstated after an intervention by Microsoft, a major OpenAI investor. More recently, several safety leaders left OpenAI, accusing the company of prioritizing product rollout over safety. In response, OpenAI established a new committee to advise its board on safety and security matters.
The resolution of Musk’s lawsuit closes a chapter in the ongoing debate over how OpenAI should balance innovation, profitability, and ethical considerations in the rapidly evolving AI industry.
