By Finances & Economy Society, March 12th (Editor: Liu Rui)
On Monday, US East Coast time, OpenAI fired back in court documents submitted to the San Francisco court, vehemently criticizing Elon Musk's accusations against it, stating that Musk's allegations are based on perplexing premises and often incoherent.
This marks the first judicial response from the startup following Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI. The company also cautioned the court that Musk might exploit this lawsuit to gain access to OpenAI's "proprietary records and technology," hence the need for "careful oversight" of the information sharing process.
In February this year, Musk sued OpenAI, CEO Sam Altman, and President Greg Brockman, claiming that OpenAI had deviated from its initial mission of building responsible artificial intelligence and had become subservient to its major investor, Microsoft.
The court filing by OpenAI represents its initial legal rebuttal to Musk's claims. OpenAI emphasized in the document that it hadn't violated any agreements with Musk because "there was no founding agreement, nor any agreement reached with Musk, as indicated by the complaint itself."
Last week, OpenAI refuted Musk's allegations in a memo sent to its employees and in a blog post.
OpenAI stated in the court filing, "The relief sought by Musk is as unreasonable as his assertions... Musk seeks an order compelling OpenAI to restructure and distribute its technology under his fictional contract terms."
Prior to the courtroom showdown, there had been a well-publicized debate and feud between OpenAI and Musk. While Musk was an early supporter and part of the founding team of OpenAI, he later fell out with the startup and departed.
Since OpenAI's ChatGPT launch and subsequent success in late 2022, Musk has repeatedly criticized OpenAI's commercialization strategy and its close ties with Microsoft.
In a blog post, OpenAI revealed that Musk had previously pushed for the company to become part of Musk's Tesla and had supported OpenAI operating as a for-profit entity, but under the condition that he would control the company.
"Seeing the significant technological advancements made by OpenAI, Musk now wishes to achieve similar success for himself," wrote OpenAI's lawyers.
OpenAI also argued in the filing that if pre-trial fact-finding and information sharing procedures were initiated in the case, Musk would exploit the lawsuit to gain access to OpenAI's "proprietary records and technology." Thus, OpenAI cautioned that the demands for information sharing need to be "carefully monitored."
OpenAI also requested the court to designate the lawsuit as a "complex case." Under California regulations, this is done to prevent unnecessary burdens on the court and involved parties. Cases involving complex technical issues and multiple parties and claims are typically deemed complex and assigned to specially designated judges.
The dispute between these two tech giants involves core issues of AI safety and accessibility and has spilled over into the broader entrepreneurial realm. On Monday, billionaire venture capitalist and OpenAI investor Vinod Khosla stated that Musk cannot acquire artificial intelligence in his own way.
