What is the story about?
Musk vs Open AI: In a major setback to Elon Musk, a US jury has ruled against the Tesla CEO in his lawsuit against OpenAI, finding the artificial intelligence
company not liable to the world's richest person for having allegedly strayed from its original mission to benefit humanity.
What did the jury say?
In a unanimous verdict, the jury in Oakland, California, federal court said Musk brought his case too late. The jury deliberated less than two hours.
The three-week trial had widely been seen as a critical moment for the future of OpenAI and artificial intelligence generally, both in how it should be used and who should benefit from it.
The verdict simplifies the path for OpenAI to proceed with a possible initial public offering that could value the business at $1 trillion.
But OpenAI's public face, Chief Executive Sam Altman, must also address the challenges to his reputation from some extremely personal testimony during the trial, including multiple witnesses describing him as a liar.
Musk to appeal?
Musk said he will appeal, repeating his claim that Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman viewed OpenAI as a means to great wealth.
"Altman & Brockman did in fact enrich themselves by stealing a charity. The only question is WHEN they did it!" Musk posted on X. "Creating a precedent to loot charities is incredibly destructive to charitable giving in America."
US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who oversaw the trial, said in court after the verdict that Musk may face an uphill battle in an appeal, because whether the statute of limitations ran out before he sued was a factual issue.
"There's a substantial amount of evidence to support the jury's finding, which is why I was prepared to dismiss on the spot," the judge said.
Musk invested early in Open AI
In his lawsuit, Musk accused OpenAI, Altman and Brockman of manipulating him into giving USD 38 million, then going behind his back by attaching a for-profit business to its original nonprofit and accepting tens of billions of dollars from Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab and other investors.
Marc Toberoff, a lawyer for Musk, said the verdict could encourage other startups that begin as nonprofits but have greater ambitions to raise money, create for-profit entities to scale, and make their officers and directors rich.
"It's a brand new formula for Silicon Valley," he told reporters.
OpenAI was founded by Altman, Musk and several others in 2015. Musk left its board in 2018, and OpenAI set up a for-profit business the next year.
Musk has since founded his own artificial intelligence startup, xAI, which is now part of his SpaceX rocket and satellite company.
OpenAI countered that it was Musk who saw dollar signs, and waited too long to claim OpenAI breached its founding agreement to build safe artificial intelligence to benefit humanity.
(With inputs from Reuters)
