AFP, citing an order from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, reported on the 13th that the trial on the merits of the lawsuit filed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman will begin on Apr. 27 (local time).
The key issue in this trial is whether Altman broke the promise to run OpenAI as a "nonprofit organization that does not pursue profit."
Musk said he agreed with the philosophy of "developing AI for all humanity" in 2015 and invested tens of millions of dollars when OpenAI was founded, but claimed he was deceived because OpenAI later abandoned its original mission and began pursuing profit, including taking investment from Microsoft (MS).
OpenAI reorganized its corporate structure last October into a public corporation (PBC) that pursues both profit and the public interest, but kept the structure under the control of the nonprofit "OpenAI Foundation."
OpenAI called Musk's claims "flimsy" and asked the court to dismiss the suit, but Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is presiding over the case, did not accept the request. The trial will be held before a jury.
Musk resigned from OpenAI's board and disposed of all his equity in Feb. 2018, a few years before OpenAI launched ChatGPT and sent shock waves through the AI market. OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022, and Musk founded the AI startup xAI in July the following year.