OpenAI fired back at billionaire Elon Musk on Friday, publishing a series of emails that the company claims show Musk’s lawsuit against it is misleading.
Musk’s legal battle with OpenAI, which has been going on for months now, at its core accuses the company of abandoning its original nonprofit mission to make the fruits of its AI research available to all. Musk withdrew the suit in July, only to revive it late this summer. An amended complaint earlier this month named new defendants, including Microsoft, a close OpenAI collaborator and investor, and a new plaintiff: Musk’s AI company, xAI.
In late November, Musk filed for injunction to halt OpenAI’s transition to a for-profit, asserting in a complaint filed by his legal team that “irreparable harm” will ensue if the injunction isn’t granted.
But OpenAI says that it’s a case of sour grapes.
The way the company tells it, Musk proposed creating a for-profit OpenAI in 2017. But when he didn’t get majority equity, he walked away.
“You can’t sue your way to [artificial general intelligence,]” OpenAI said. “We have great respect for Elon’s accomplishments and gratitude for his early contributions to OpenAI, but he should be competing in the marketplace rather than the courtroom.”
Musk formed his answer to OpenAI, xAI, last year. Soon after, the company released Grok, an AI model that now powers a number of features on Musk’s social network, X (formerly known as Twitter). xAI also offers an API that allows customers to build Grok into third-party apps, platforms, and services.
In the motion for an injunction, Musk’s attorneys allege OpenAI is depriving xAI of capital by extracting promises from investors not to fund it and the competition. In October, the Financial Times reported that OpenAI demanded investors in its latest funding round abstain from also funding any of OpenAI’s rivals, including xAI.
Of course, xAI has had no trouble raising money lately. Reportedly, the startup closed a $5 billion round this month with participation from prominent investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Fidelity. With around $11 billion in the bank, xAI is one of the best-funded AI companies in the world.
Musk’s motion for an injunction also alleges that Microsoft and OpenAI continue to illegally share proprietary information and resources, and that several of the defendants, including Altman, are engaging in self-dealing that harms marketplace competition. For example, the filing notes, OpenAI selected Stripe, a payment platform in which Altman has “material financial interests,” as OpenAI’s payment processor. (Altman is said to have made billions from his Stripe holdings.)
Google reportedly has also called for Microsoft’s relationships with OpenAI to be investigated.
