Elon Musk dropped his lawsuit against OpenAI, the highflying artificial intelligence company he helped found and now competes against.
Musk’s lawyers filed the motion on his behalf Tuesday. No reason for withdrawing the lawsuit was given in the filing, but OpenAI’s lawyers were set to argue in a hearing Wednesday that the case should be dismissed.
Musk originally filed his lawsuit at the beginning of March, arguing that OpenAI had breached its commitment to early investors and the public to build AI for the benefit of humanity when it began making money. At the time, OpenAI executives blamed Musk’s lawsuit on his not being a part of the company as it was seeing massive success. Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. A spokesperson for OpenAI declined to comment.
Musk was part of the original group that formed OpenAI as a counterweight to the power of Big Tech companies, especially Google, which was investing billions in developing AI tech. He officially stepped down from his role at OpenAI in 2018. Since then, the company has taken on billions in outside investment from Microsoft and become the central catalyst of the AI boom. On Monday, OpenAI announced a major deal to integrate its ChatGPT chatbot into Apple’s products.
Musk has openly criticized OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman, for focusing more on growing a business and making money than serving humanity. At the same time, Musk himself is trying to build his own AI company, called xAI. He raised $6 billion for the venture last month.
Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.
