Elon Musk withdraws lawsuit against OpenAI

Elon Musk has withdrawn his lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman. The lawsuit was filed in San Francisco Superior Court in February and sought to prove that the company Musk co-founded in 2015 had violated its founding mission of developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) “for the benefit of humanity.”

Musk’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the case without prejudice on Tuesday, meaning the billionaire could theoretically refile the complaint in the future. A hearing over OpenAI’s motion to dismiss was scheduled for Wednesday. No details about whether Musk and OpenAI had reached a settlement were provided in the filing.

Musk left OpenAI in 2018, reportedly over disagreements about the direction of the company. In the years since, OpenAI secured billions in funding from the likes of Microsoft and released lucrative AI products like its ChatGPT chatbot that can power customer service and marketing automation tools.

Musk, too, has created an AI company. xAI, founded last year, aims to develop AGI that’s “safe and aligned with humanity’s values,” according to its website. Musk raised a whopping $6 billion for xAI in May, reportedly valuing the company at $60 billion.

OpenAI has faced significant talent flight in the past year as some employees have pushed back against the company’s focus on monetization. The nonprofit says it’s taking steps to ensure that its AI tech — which is licensed to businesses — is safe and that the company is transparent about the tech’s capabilities.

OpenAI on Wednesday cheered the news of the lawsuit’s dismissal.

“We’re pleased that this baseless lawsuit has been dismissed,” a spokesperson for the company said in a statement. “We’re focused on building and developing safe and sophisticated AI, and we’re thrilled to be able to move forward without this distraction.”