Elon Musk vs Sam Altman: OpenAI Trial Set For April 27, All You Need To Know

A US federal court has fixed April 27 as the trial date for Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and others. Musk says OpenAI has moved away from its original goal of working as a non-profit for the public good. In his lawsuit, Musk alleges that Altman 'intentionally courted and deceived' him in the early days by pitching OpenAI as a non-profit organisation. According to Musk, the idea was to build an AI lab that could challenge Google’s DeepMind while keeping artificial intelligence open source and accessible to the public.However, the complaint says OpenAI later changed its structure, created for-profit arms, and entered into multi-billion-dollar commercial deals, which Musk argues goes against the mission it was founded on.Musk

was one of the co-founders of OpenAI in 2015 and was also its biggest early backer, reportedly putting in tens of millions of dollars in seed funding. He eventually left the organisation in 2018, years before OpenAI became a household name.OpenAI went on to launch ChatGPT in 2022, which quickly became one of the most widely used AI chatbots globally. After that, Musk stepped deeper into the AI race by launching his own rival company, xAI.Meanwhile, Microsoft has been one of OpenAI’s biggest supporters since 2019, investing billions into the AI company. Reports suggest Microsoft also became OpenAI’s largest shareholder after a major restructuring last year.The jury trial will be held in Oakland, California, and will be overseen by US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.OpenAI and its leadership have rejected all allegations. The company argues that Musk’s lawsuit is driven by business rivalry rather than genuine concern. According to OpenAI’s lawyers, Musk is unhappy as his own AI venture, xAI, is competing directly with OpenAI in the fast-growing generative AI market.Microsoft, which is also named in the lawsuit, has asked the court to dismiss the claims against it. Lawyers for Microsoft told the court there is no evidence to suggest the company helped OpenAI in any alleged wrongdoing, as per Reuters.OpenAI’s legal team also argued that Musk filed the lawsuit too late and failed to provide solid proof for serious charges like fraud and breach of contract.With Inputs from AFP