"Was the Effect Sufficient?" Musk Withdraws Lawsuit Against OpenAI and Altman

Criticism of Apple-OpenAI Partnership Disclosure the Day Before
Reason for Withdrawal Unclear, "Lawsuit Filed for Publicity?"

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has abruptly withdrawn the lawsuit he filed against OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, and its CEO Sam Altman, CNBC reported on the 11th (local time).

According to documents submitted to the San Francisco Superior Court on the same day, Musk's legal team requested the court to dismiss the lawsuit filed in February against OpenAI and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla
[Photo by Yonhap News]

Originally, the San Francisco Superior Court was scheduled to begin hearing the lawsuit on the 12th. The lawsuit was withdrawn a day before the trial. Musk's side did not disclose the reason for withdrawing the lawsuit.

In February, Musk sent a complaint to CEO Altman and OpenAI demanding that they cease commercial operations and release AI technology as open source.

Musk, a founding member of OpenAI, pointed out in the complaint that although OpenAI was launched with the founding mission to develop Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) for the benefit of humanity, it has effectively become a closed-source entity and a subsidiary of Microsoft (MS), its major shareholder. He demanded that they stop commercial operations and release AI technology as open source.

OpenAI responded by stating that Musk supported the commercial plans and had expressed the need to raise billions of dollars to compete against big tech companies. They also countered that Musk had approved plans not to develop open-source software for AGI and had proposed a merger with Tesla.

Experts evaluated that Musk's claims lacked legal grounds since the core contract of the lawsuit was not an official written agreement signed by the parties involved.

There is also analysis suggesting that Musk filed the lawsuit to promote himself as a founding member of OpenAI. Kevin O'Brien, partner at Ford O'Brien Landy LLP, said, "It was good publicity for Musk's interests," adding, "I'm not sure about the legal validity."

CNBC assessed, "Through the complaint, Musk reminded the world of his role in the founding process of one of the most popular startups on the planet."

Meanwhile, the day before withdrawing the lawsuit, Musk publicly criticized the partnership between Apple and OpenAI. On his X (formerly Twitter) account, he stated, "If Apple integrates OpenAI at the operating system (OS) level, Apple devices will be banned from my company," adding, "You have no idea what happens when Apple hands your data over to OpenAI. They will betray you and sell you down the river."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.