On February 25, Reuters reported that a federal judge in California dismissed a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI on Tuesday. The lawsuit accuses rival Sam Altman’s OpenAI of stealing its trade secrets.
OpenAI
U.S. District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco said that xAI has not yet presented sufficient evidence to prove that OpenAI committed any wrongdoing, but the company can refile the lawsuit.
xAI filed the lawsuit in September last year, claiming that former xAI employees took source code and other confidential information related to its Grok chatbot when they switched jobs to OpenAI.
"It is worth noting that the indictment lacks any improper allegations regarding OpenAI's own conduct. xAI has not stated any facts indicating that OpenAI induced xAI's former employees to steal its trade secrets, or that these former xAI employees used any stolen trade secrets after being employed by OpenAI," Judge Lin Ping said.
Judge Lin Ping hinted in a January opinion that she might rule in favor of OpenAI. She gave xAI until March 17 to file an amended complaint.
In addition, xAI also separately sued a former engineer, Xuechen Li, accusing him of bringing trade secrets to OpenAI.
As of press time, spokespersons and lawyers for xAI and OpenAI have not yet commented.