Lawsuit Over OpenAI For-Profit Conversion Can Head To Trial, US Judge Says
- Reference: 0180550613
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/01/08/2230229/lawsuit-over-openai-for-profit-conversion-can-head-to-trial-us-judge-says
- Source link:
> Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk persuaded a judge on Wednesday to allow a jury trial on [2]his allegations that ChatGPT maker OpenAI [3]violated its founding mission in its high-profile restructuring to a for-profit entity . Musk was a cofounder of OpenAI [4]in 2015 but [5]left in 2018 and now runs an AI company that competes with it.
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> U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, said at a hearing that there was "plenty of evidence" suggesting OpenAI's leaders made assurances that its original nonprofit structure was going to be maintained. The judge said there were enough disputed facts to let a jury consider the claims at a trial scheduled for March, rather than decide the issues herself. She said she would issue a written order after the hearing that addresses OpenAI's bid to throw out the case.
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> [...] Musk contends he contributed about $38 million, roughly 60% of OpenAI's early funding, along with strategic guidance and credibility, based on assurances that the organization would [6]remain a nonprofit dedicated to the public benefit. The lawsuit accuses OpenAI co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman of plotting a for-profit switch to enrich themselves, culminating in multibillion-dollar deals with Microsoft and a recent restructuring.
OpenAI, Altman and Brockman have denied the claims, and they called Musk "a frustrated commercial competitor seeking to slow down a mission-driven market leader."
Microsoft is also a defendant and has urged the judge to toss Musk's lawsuit. A lawyer for Microsoft said there was no evidence that the company "aided and abetted" OpenAI.
OpenAI in a statement after the hearing said: "Mr Musk's lawsuit continues to be baseless and a part of his ongoing pattern of harassment, and we look forward to demonstrating this at trial."
[1] https://slashdot.org/~schwit1
[2] https://slashdot.org/story/24/03/01/1218218/elon-musk-sues-openai-and-sam-altman
[3] https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/musk-lawsuit-over-openai-for-profit-conversion-can-head-trial-us-judge-says-2026-01-07/
[4] https://news.slashdot.org/story/15/12/13/1432208/elon-musk-others-fund-1b-non-profit-to-advance-ai-research-ethics
[5] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/18/02/22/2121221/elon-musk-steps-down-from-ai-safety-group-to-avoid-conflict-of-interest-with-tesla
[6] https://slashdot.org/story/23/02/28/2058230/openai-is-now-everything-it-promised-not-to-be-corporate-closed-source-and-for-profit
Hopefully this gets ugly. (Score:1)
The parties involved are wealthy enough that merely hoping that this ends up involving a lot of expensive lawyers doesn't seem sufficient. Hopefully it will be a nonstop mess of really damning discovery that makes both sides look even worse than usual; along with some disruption to the teetering piles of contracts conditional on the for-profit conversion.
Re: (Score:2)
It will be fun to watch Altman get fired by the directors a second time, when all the details come out.
Have your popcorn ready.
Stares wisely into the distance* (Score:1)
"Let them fight."
How much latitude does the judge have? (Score:2, Interesting)
Can the judge just have all the parties in the case summarily executed?
Re: (Score:3)
Came to say simmilar.
Usually in one of these cases, you are rooting for one of the two parties.
In this case the only way we all win is if they both somehow lose.
Musk made a big deal about it being open source (Score:2)
I remember when they spun up and it was well understood that it was going to be an open source non-profit entity.
I'm not surprised the judge saw enough evidence to go forward.
Now, Not-OpenAI will do everything they can to show Musk is a nutcase and confused. But the jury will likely see that and recognize it but it won't change the facts that it was started and stated as being a non-profit open source entity. And everyone who bought into the profit route will be against this since they like to keep their s
Re: (Score:2)
"...doing a good thing for humanity every couple years."
Not nearly that frequently, and only by coincidence. Musk only has Musk's interests at heart here, and the only thing better than OpenAI's destruction would be Musk's.