Elon Musk has dropped his lawsuit against OpenAI, the company he co-founded in 2015. According to court documents from California Superior Court, Musk dropped the lawsuit on June 11, just one day before a private meeting was scheduled to discuss discovery.
Musk initially sued OpenAI in March 2024 for breach of contract, unfair business practices, and breach of fiduciary duty. He claimed his donations to the company were “made in exchange for, and in reliance on, promises that those assets would be dedicated in perpetuity to building AI for the public good, with safety being its only concern.”
The suit sought relief for “breach of contract, promissory estoppel, breach of fiduciary duty, unfair trade practices and accounting,” as well as specific performance, indemnity and damages.
But the motion to dismiss doesn't explain why it's abandoning the lawsuit. OpenAI previously said Musk's claims are “inconsistent,” that his inability to produce contract documents makes it difficult to substantiate his breach of contract claim, and that documents Musk has provided “inconsistent with his assertions regarding the terms of the contract.”
The dismissal of the lawsuit comes at a time when Musk has strongly opposed Apple's plans to integrate ChatGPT into its operating system.
During Apple's keynote event announcing Apple Intelligence for iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, Musk called the integration an “unacceptable security breach” and threatened to ban Apple devices from his company.
Despite Apple and OpenAI assuring users that data is only shared with explicit consent and that interactions are secure, Musk questioned Apple's ability to ensure data security, saying, “Apple has no idea what's actually happening when they hand over your data to OpenAI. They're scamming you and selling you off.”
Since filing his lawsuit against OpenAI, Musk has also founded his own AI company, xAI, and secured more than $6 billion in funding for plans to promote the Grok chatbot on his social network, X.
It's unclear why Musk dropped the Open AI lawsuit, but his actions suggest he may be shifting his focus to moving forward with his own AI efforts while continuing to voice his criticism of Open AI through social media rather than in court.
reference: DuckDuckGo launches portal offering private access to AI models
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