OpenAI on Tuesday won one of its legal battles with xAI, which involved allegations of poaching and theft of trade secrets.
The former company’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit was granted With amendments allowed on Tuesday, meaning xAI has the option to re-file amended claims. In the decision, U.S. District Judge Rita F. Lin wrote that “XAI does not point to any misconduct by OpenAI in its current claims”. “Instead, it points to eight former xAI employees who left for OpenAI at around the same time,” with no indication that OpenAI directed their actions when leaving xAI.
XAI alleges that two former employees “stole its source code during their departure while they were communicating with an OpenAI recruiter,” Lin writes, but “there is no allegation that the recruiter asked them to do so.” XAI also alleges that two other former employees “retained work conversations on their devices after leaving XAI,” that one “rejected XAI’s demands to provide various certifications regarding confidential information after his departure,” that another “unsuccessfully tried to access But Lin determined that none of these amounted to illegal behavior at OpenAI. “Allegations regarding OpenAI’s conduct are notably absent,” Lin writes.
XAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The case is part of a legal struggle between OpenAI and Elon Musk, who is both the CEO of XAI and a former co-founder of OpenAI. In recent years, Musk and Altman have had one confrontation after another, with indirect (or not so indirect) insults thrown out in public statements, social media, and lawsuits. Their most dramatic confrontation involves a lawsuit over OpenAI’s transition from a non-profit to a for-profit entity, which is currently scheduled to go to a jury trial in April.
one in Post On X, OpenAI wrote, “We welcome the court’s decision. This baseless lawsuit was nothing more than another front in Mr. Musk’s ongoing campaign of harassment.”
