Elon Musk-led xAI's lawsuit against OpenAI may get dismissed soon after a federal judge signalled that her ‘tentative view’ is to grant the ChatGPT maker's request. xAI had alleged that OpenAI had waged a coordinated and unfair campaign against it by targeting its employees and using them to steal trade secrets related to the Grok chatbot.
As per a Reuters report, US District Judge Rita Lin has signalled an intent to grant OpenAI's motion to dismiss the xAI lawsuit, pending oral arguments on 3 February. The judge also stated that, tentatively, xAI would have the option to amend its claims if the case is dismissed.
The lawsuit was filed by xAI in September last year, and OpenAI had countered the claims by stating that it was conducting a “campaign to harass a competitor with unfounded legal claims” and that xAI's chatbot was not able to compete with ChatGPT.
Judge Lin, in her four-page filing, stated that xAI did not plausibly allege that OpenAI acquired or encouraged the theft of trade secrets, despite the allegations that a few former xAI employees downloaded Grok source code before leaving the company.
Lin stated that it was not plausible to infer from xAI's complaint that OpenAI used xAI's trade secrets or that former xAI employees used them on the job after joining OpenAI.
She also reportedly dismissed the unfair competition claim, stating that the startup's poaching charges “all focus on poaching in service of acquiring xAI’s trade secrets and do not identify any other reason why the hiring of those employees was anticompetitive.”
What had xAI alleged?
“OpenAI is not merely soliciting or hiring a competitor’s employees. OpenAI is waging a coordinated, unfair, and unlawful campaign,” xAI said in its lawsuit.
The company also alleged that the ChatGPT maker “is targeting those individuals with knowledge of xAI’s key technologies and business plans—including xAI’s source code and its operational advantages in launching data centers—then inducing those employees to breach their confidentiality and other obligations to xAI through unlawful means,” it further noted.
Prior to filing the case against OpenAI, xAI had also sued its former engineer, Xuechen Li, for allegedly stealing trade secrets related to Grok AI and taking them to the ChatGPT maker.
Notably, Musk had also sued OpenAI for moving away from its original mission in favour of profit seeking motive. The billionaire is also seeking around $134.5 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft in the same case.
