Elon Musk has unexpectedly requested a California court to dismiss a legal case against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, alleging a departure from the company’s original mission of advancing artificial intelligence (AI) for the benefit of humanity.
The filing, submitted by Musk’s legal team, offers no explanation for the sudden withdrawal, occurring just before the scheduled hearing on OpenAI’s motion to dismiss the case. BBC News reached out to Musk’s lawyer and OpenAI for comment, but no response was received.
The dismissal request is noted as “without prejudice,” leaving the option open for Musk to reinstate the case later. Musk filed the lawsuit against OpenAI in February, accusing the organization of prioritizing profit over altruism, a claim disputed by OpenAI, which cited Musk’s previous support for a for-profit structure and potential merger with Tesla.
Tensions escalated following Apple’s announcement of a collaboration with OpenAI to enhance its Siri voice assistant with OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot, prompting Musk to criticize the partnership on social media.
Despite Musk’s objections, Apple’s stock value surged to over $3 trillion. Musk initiated his own AI venture, xAI, in July 2023, introducing Grok, a chatbot competitor to ChatGPT, in November of the same year.
