Musk's Claim against OpenAI May go to Trial In Part, Judge Says
Musk takes legal action against to block OpenAI's conversion to a for-profit structure
Musk cofounded OpenAI with Altman in 2015
OpenAI argues for-profit move needed for capital
Nonprofit to for-profit conversion rare, expert states
(Adds judge did not choose whether or not to issue the injunction in paragraph 5, OpenAi's legal representatives' comment in paragraph 13)
By Anna Tong and Akash Sriram
OAKLAND, Calif., Feb 4 (Reuters) - A federal judge said on Tuesday that parts of Elon Musk's claim against OpenAI to stop its conversion to a for-profit entity might go to trial, adding that the Tesla CEO will need to appear in court and testify.
"Something is going to trial in this case," U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, said early in the court session.
"(Elon Musk will) sit on the stand, present it to a jury, and a jury will decide who is right." Rogers was thinking about Musk's current demand for wiki.lafabriquedelalogistique.fr an initial injunction to block OpenAI's conversion before going to trial, the current move in an animosity match in between the world's richest person and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman that is playing out openly in court.
Rogers did not choose whether to issue the injunction Tuesday, but at one point recommended that Musk's legal team had not presented adequate evidence for her to provide the injunction, and indicated she might hold an evidentiary hearing, raovatonline.org where both sides might provide witnesses and oke.zone proof. The last time Rogers offered a preliminary injunction remained in Epic Games' case against Apple in May 2021.
Musk cofounded OpenAI with Altman in 2015, however left before the business removed and subsequently established the contending AI start-up xAI in 2023. OpenAI is now trying to shift from a nonprofit into a for-profit entity, utahsyardsale.com which it says it requires to do to protect the capital needed to establish the very best expert system models. Last year, Musk submitted a claim against OpenAI and Altman, saying that OpenAI ´ s creators originally approached him to fund a nonprofit concentrated on establishing AI to benefit humankind, but that it is now focused on earning money. He later broadened the claim to include federal antitrust and other claims, and utahsyardsale.com in December asked the judge presiding over the case to stop OpenAI from transitioning to a for-profit.
In reaction to Musk ´ s claim, wiki.snooze-hotelsoftware.de OpenAI has said it will move to dismiss Musk ´ s claims and that Musk "must be competing in the marketplace instead of the courtroom." The stakes on OpenAI's business transition have now escalated, as OpenAI ´ s last fundraising round of $6.6 billion and wiki.lafabriquedelalogistique.fr a new round of up to $25 billion under discussion with SoftBank are conditioned on the company restructuring to get rid of the nonprofit ´ s manage.
During the hearing, OpenAI's lawyers said the reason to permit OpenAI to end up being a for-profit entity is since it would be necessary to facilitate the objective of the not-for-profit.
Such a would be extremely unusual, said Rose Chan Loui, executive director of the UCLA Law Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofits. Nonprofit conversions to for-profits have actually historically been for healthcare companies like hospitals, not endeavor capital-backed business, she said. (Reporting by Anna Tong in Oakland and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru, Editing by Marguerita Choy)