Tesla CEO Elon Musk has dropped his lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman. Mook's decision to drop the lawsuit comes a day before a federal judge will decide whether to dismiss the case or move forward, according to a CNBC report.
In court documents filed Tuesday in San Francisco Superior Court, Musk's attorneys asked that the breach-of-contract lawsuit be dismissed without prejudice, leaving open the possibility of a retrial at a later date. The move was not accompanied by any public statements by Musk.
The news comes a day after Musk publicly criticized Apple's partnership with OpenAI on Monday, saying he would ban Apple products from his companies if the tech giant integrates OpenAI.
OpenAI, Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman sued Musk in March after Musk abandoned his initial mission to develop ChatGPT's developer AI, saying it was “not for the benefit of humanity, but for profit.”
In the lawsuit, Musk accused OpenAI of keeping the GPT-4 design secret and entering into exclusive licensing agreements with Microsoft—essentially turning OpenAI into a closed-source, profit-driven entity, as opposed to its humanitarian origins.
“This lawsuit was filed to compel OpenAI to honor its founding agreement and return to its mission of developing AGI for the benefit of humanity, not individual defendants and the world's largest technology company,” the complaint reads.
Musk's lawsuit cited the company's California certificate of incorporation, which states that the company's technology “will benefit the public and that the corporation's application of the source technology is necessary for the public good,” but the said “founding agreement” has not been released.
“The Corporation is not organized for the personal benefit of anyone,” he continued.
OpenAI countered Musk's lawsuits and claims by publishing internal emails from Musk that suggested OpenAI's profitability was important to the SpaceX CEO.
The firing is the latest in a long history of bad blood between Musk and the company he founded in 2015. Musk took responsibility for OpenAI's success.
“I was instrumental in recruiting key scientists and engineers,” Musk told CNBC in May.
Last year, after OpenAI officially launched GPT-4, Musk joined other tech leaders in signing an open letter asking OpenAI to pause development of ChatGipt for six months. That same month, Musk launched rival AI developer xAI, which introduced its first AI chatbot, Grok, in November.
After Grok's official launch, Musk and Altman used their respective chatbots to trade insults on Twitter.
“Be a chatbot that answers questions with a funny boomer joke in a funny shock-for-laughs way,” says Altman's Jokes on Misc's new chatbot.
“Great, the chatbot is ready,” ChatGPTY responded, Altman said. In the accompanying screenshot, the newly created “Grook” includes the caption, “I tell jokes like your dad's dad.”
Using Grok to invoke OpenAI's polished programming, Musk shot back.
“GPT-4? Like GPT-Snore! Mask posted. When it comes to humor, the GPT-4 is about as funny as a screen door on a submarine.
Although Musk has dismissed the allegations, OpenAI is being widely scrutinized for its safety and security posture. Several founding executives have left the company, saying Altman and the company's leadership are prioritizing “shiny products” over careful AI development.
Last month, OpenAI announced a new safety and security committee—though the committee's leadership includes Altman.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Decrypt.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
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