(Photo: mashable India)
The legal battle between billionaire Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over OpenAI's transition to a for-profit operating model continues to escalate.
Both sides have agreed to speed up the trial process, demonstrating their determination to bring this issue to legal light.
According to US federal court filings, Mr. Musk and OpenAI have jointly proposed holding a trial in December this year.
A judge has denied Elon Musk’s request to temporarily halt OpenAI’s transition, but has agreed to hold a trial next fall, a new twist in a bitter legal battle.
In a recent blog post, OpenAI welcomed the court's March 4 ruling, saying it prevented Elon Musk from furthering OpenAI's efforts to benefit his own interests.
Billionaire Elon Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015, but left the company before it became a major success. He then founded xAI, a startup that competes directly with OpenAI, in 2023.
In 2014, Mr. Musk sued OpenAI and Altman, accusing the company of deviating from its original mission: developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the benefit of humanity, not for profit.
OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman have denied the allegations, with Altman even suggesting that Musk is deliberately stifling the growth of competitors. The lawsuit centers on OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, moving to a for-profit model, which the company says is necessary to raise more capital and remain competitive in the AI industry.
OpenAI raised $6.6 billion in its most recent funding round, and is currently in talks with SoftBank Group for a $40 billion follow-on round. A common condition in these funding rounds is that OpenAI must restructure and lose control from the nonprofit.
The recently filed filing also revealed that CEO Sam Altman rejected a $97.4 billion acquisition offer from a consortium led by billionaire Elon Musk and maintained that "OpenAI is not for sale"./.
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