Federal judge on Tuesday Elon Musk rejected requests To stop Openai from becoming a for-profit enterprise, the tech billionaire has found that he has failed to show that he is likely to succeed in the merits of the case.
However, US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said he was ready to promote trials for cases that last until fall of 2025.
Musk, who helped set up Openai, sued AI (AI) company CEO Sam Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman last August, claiming he persuaded him to invest in the project based on the premise that he shared his concerns about AI development.
With Openai currently preparing to convert to a for-profit organization, Musk claims that Altman and Brockman have abandoned the company's founding mission.
The judge seemed open to Musk's claim that Openai's commercial push represents a breach of contract, but that it was a “throw” to say whether or not it would succeed in proof that such a contract exists.
“It is debatable whether Musk's email and social media posts constitute sufficient text to constitute an actual contract or charitable trust between the parties,” Rogers wrote in his ruling Tuesday.
She said early communications showed that Altman and Brockman reassured Musk about their altruistic motivations. However, other messages show that Musk is considering the possibility of converting Openai into a commercial entity.
“The court agrees that if public money is used to fund the conversion of nonprofits into for-profit organizations, serious and irreparable harm will occur,” the judge said, referring to the nonprofit tax credit.
Rogers was more skeptical of Musk's other claims. Tesla and SpaceX CEOs expanded the lawsuit in November, accusing Openai of violating antitrust laws by conspiring with Microsoft to control other AI companies. His own AI company, Xai, has been added to the suit.
The judge said he would consider promoting trials with contract claims alone and demand that all other claims be removed.
The ruling comes weeks after Musk placed an unsolicited $97.4 billion bid to buy Openai. This is the effort he promised to drop if the AI company agrees to halt the for-profit transition. Openai's board ultimately rejected the mask bid and argued in favor of the restructuring.
“Openai is not on sale. The board unanimously rejected its latest attempt to disrupt Musk's competition,” Openai Chairman Bret Taylor said at the time. “Openai's potential reorganization strengthens our nonprofit and its mission to secure AGI [artificial general intelligence] It benefits all humanity. ”
