Elon Musk’s legal team has filed for a preliminary injunction against artificial intelligence startup OpenAI. The motion for an injunction was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Friday.
In its filing, Musk’s legal team accused OpenAI, CEO Sam Altman, President Greg Brockman, former OpenAI board members Reid Hoffman and Dee Templeton, and Microsoft of anticompetitive behavior. Musk’s attorneys warned that “irreparable harm” would happen if the injunction were not granted, as per a TechCrunch report.
Musk’s legal team outlined a number of allegations in their filing. These include OpenAI allegedly discouraging investors from supporting rivals like xAI and OpenAI benefitting from “wrongfully obtained competitively sensitive information” thanks to its Microsoft connections, among others. Musk’s legal team also argued that OpenAI and Microsoft are effectively exploiting the CEO’s donations to the AI startup.
“It would be one thing if Microsoft were, once again, engaging in anticompetitive conduct, this time with OpenAI. It would be another if OpenAI, aided and abetted by Microsoft, were violating the terms of Musk’s foundational contributions to the charity. But OpenAI and Microsoft together exploiting Musk’s donations so they can build a for-profit monopoly, one now specifically targeting xAI, is just too much. Plaintiffs and the public need a pause.
“OpenAI’s path from a non-profit to for-profit behemoth is replete with per se anticompetitive practices, flagrant breaches of its charitable mission, and rampant self-dealing. Allowing this course of conduct to continue until final disposition will seriously harm Plaintiffs and the public at large, whether as competitors, as donors and early members, as investors facing a complex and costly unwinding, as consumers, as taxpayers, as citizens concerned about violations of California and federal law, or simply as people, concerned about rushed, unsafe AI products,” Musk’s legal team wrote in their filing.
Elon Musk has had OpenAI in his crosshairs for some time now, though his legal success against the AI startup has been mixed. In July, Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, which accused the company of abandoning its nonprofit mission, was withdrawn. The suit was revived in late summer, and in November, two new plaintiffs and several new defendants were added to the case.
The motion for an injunction from Musk’s legal team against OpenAI can be viewed below.
Elon Musk OpenAI by Simon Alvarez on Scribd
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