OpenAI vs Elon Musk: Sam Altman says getting xAI CEO under oath will be 'Christmas in April'

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has launched another attack at Elon Musk, stating that he is ‘excited’ to get the Tesla CEO under oath in a few months. Notably, Musk had filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in 2024, which later expanded to include Microsoft, claiming that the ChatGPT maker had drifted away from its original non-profit mission.

The world’s richest man said in the lawsuit that he had contributed around $38 million to OpenAI under the promise that the AI startup would remain a non-profit. He is now seeking between $79 billion and $134 billion in damages from OpenAI and its primary backer, Microsoft.

While OpenAI tried to get the lawsuit dismissed, the California judge presiding over the case has set the trial date for April.

Talking about the upcoming trial in a post on X, Altman wrote, “Really excited to get Elon under oath in a few months, Christmas in April!”

In a separate post, Altman wrote “concerning” while reposting OpenAI Chief Security Officer Jason Kwon’s post. Kwon alleged that in the lawsuit Musk’s xAI has filed against OpenAI and Apple, the company is hiding documents during discovery.

Notably, xAI had sued the iPhone maker and OpenAI in August last year over the companies’ decision to integrate ChatGPT into Apple’s Siri voice assistant. The billionaire has alleged that the two companies are creating a monopolistic environment that suppresses competition for AI chatbots.

OpenAI alleges that Elon Musk’s company hid evidence:

In the latest court filing, OpenAI has accused Musk’s xAI of ‘engaging in the systematic and intentional destruction of documents’ related to the case.

The ChatGPT maker says it requested documents from xAI to verify claims that the company faced barriers in the generative AI space as a result of the agreement between OpenAI and Apple.

“xAI has produced virtually nothing — not one internal document about the merits of the claims plaintiffs chose to bring. Nothing about the alleged barriers to entry they face in the generative AI market,” OpenAI said in the filing.

OpenAI claims that Musk’s company directed employees at every level to use disappearing messaging tools in matters that were relevant to the lawsuit, despite planning to sue the ChatGPT maker.

The company says it wants xAI to stop using disappearing messaging tools like Signal, X Chat, or others for business purposes. It has also requested the appointment of a ‘neutral forensic inspector’ to investigate the alleged destruction of evidence.