Elon Musk Drops Lawsuit Against OpenAI, Preserves Right To Refile

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has withdrawn his lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, in a surprise legal move that leaves the door open for future action. 

The dismissal, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, comes without an explanation. But it is noted as being without prejudice, allowing Musk to refile the suit at a later date if he chooses.

The lawsuit, initially lodged in February, accused OpenAI of abandoning its founding mission to develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity rather than for profit. 

Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI, alleged that the company had strayed from its original non-profit, open-source ethos. The conflict intensified last year when OpenAI released GPT-4, its most powerful language model, which Musk claimed violated the startup’s foundational agreement by focusing on financial gains, particularly benefiting from substantial funding by Microsoft.

Musk’s legal action sought to compel OpenAI to release its research and technology to the public and prevent the company from using its assets, including GPT-4, for financial benefit. OpenAI, however, countered that the lawsuit was incoherent and a strategic ploy by Musk to advance his own interests, particularly through his new AI startup xAI. Established last July, xAI recently secured USD 6 billion in Series B funding, reaching a post-money valuation of USD 24 billion.

The withdrawal of the lawsuit comes just before a Superior Court judge was scheduled to hear OpenAI’s bid to dismiss the case.