Tech billionaire Elon Musk has filed for a preliminary injunction against Sam Altman-run OpenAI for alleged anti-competitive behaviour.
The motion for an injunction accuses OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altman, President Greg Brockman, Microsoft, LinkedIn co-founder and former OpenAI board member Reid Hoffman, and former OpenAI board member and Microsoft VP Dee Templeton of &ldquo;various illicit activities and seeks to halt them,&rdquo; according to reports.
The reports mentioned that the allegations include discouraging investors from backing OpenAI rivals like Musk&rsquo;s own AI company, xAI and benefitting from &ldquo;wrongfully obtained competitively sensitive information&rdquo; through OpenAI&rsquo;s connections with Microsoft.
The allegations also include converting OpenAI&rsquo;s governance structure to a for-profit and &ldquo;transferring any material assets, including intellectual property owned, held, or controlled by OpenAI, Inc., its subsidiaries, or affiliates.&rdquo;
&ldquo;An injunction to preserve what is left of OpenAI&rsquo;s non-profit character, free from self-dealing, is the only appropriate remedy. If not, the OpenAI promised to Musk and the public will be long gone by the time the court reaches the merits,&rdquo; read the motion.
OpenAI said in a statement that &ldquo;Elon&rsquo;s fourth attempt, which again recycles the same baseless complaints, continues to be utterly without merit.&rdquo;
The AI company had earlier called the lawsuit &ldquo;blusterous&rdquo; and baseless.
In the motion for an injunction, Musk attorneys wrote that &ldquo;Maintaining OpenAI&rsquo;s charitable status pending final resolution and halting further self-dealing transactions by Altman protect both the organization&rsquo;s founding mission and the public interest in proper administration of charities&rdquo;.
In his amended lawsuit against OpenAI, filed in a district court in California, Musk&rsquo;s lawyers argued that OpenAI is &ldquo;actively trying to eliminate competitors&rdquo; such as xAI by &ldquo;extracting promises from investors not to fund them.&rdquo;
The lawsuit further alleged that &ldquo;never before has a corporation gone from tax-exempt charity to a $157 billion for-profit, market-paralyzing gorgon&mdash;and in just eight years&rdquo;.
&mdash;IANS

This is the 4th time Elon Musk has gunned for OpenAI

Alleges anti-competitive behaviour like discouraging investors from backing rivals like Musk’s xAI

Musk Tries to Block OpenAI’s For-Profit Shift

Alleges anti-competitive behaviour like discouraging investors from backing rivals like Musk’s xAI

December 1, 2024 | 09:41 IST