US federal judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has denied Elon Musk's request for an injunction that would have immediately stopped OpenAI's conversion into a for-profit entity. Musk filed for an injunction late last year after suing OpenAI and Microsoft and accusing them of telling investors not to fund rival AI companies, such as his own xAI. According to the Financial Times, the judge dismissed his request based on that claim of anticompetitive behavior. Gonzalez Rogers cited a previous statement by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, saying that the company only warned certain investors who were granted access to sensitive information that their rights would be terminated if they made a non-passive investment in rival companies.
The judge also reportedly rejected the request based on Musk's claim that OpenAI and Altman broke their contract with him and violated the company's founding mission of building AI "for the benefit of humanity." Musk, who helped found OpenAI and funded it when it was just starting out, said Altman and his fellow OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman "took advantage of [his] altruism in order to lure him into funding the venture." In a statement sent to Bloomberg, OpenAI said that the lawsuit has "always been about the competition." The company added that "Elon’s own emails show that he wanted to merge a for-profit OpenAI into Tesla. That would have been great for his personal benefit, but not for [OpenAI's] mission or US interests."
After Musk filed his original lawsuit against OpenAI last year, the company published old emails between Musk and other people in the company. OpenAI revealed that Musk was not only aware that it was taking the for-profit route, he wanted majority equity, control of the initial board of directors and the CEO position. Anoter email from Musk suggested making the organization a part of Tesla. In February this year, Musk launched a bid to buy OpenAI for $97.4 billion, but the company gave him a firm "no thank you" in response.
As Bloomberg noted, the judge's rejection of Musk's request is significant, because OpenAI is already in the process of talking with government officials about taking on a more typical corporate structure. While the judge has rejected Musk's request, she is fast-tracking his lawsuit and will hold an expedited trial later this year on the basis of public interest and on his claim that OpenAI's transformation has a "potential for harm if a conversion contrary to law occurred."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/court-denies-elon-musks-attempt-to-block-openais-for-profit-transformation-133025600.html?src=rss