Arabic version: هيئة المحلفين ترفض دعوى ماسك ضد OpenAI وسام ألتمان
A California jury has tossed out Elon Musk’s high-profile lawsuit against OpenAI and its boss Sam Altman. In a unanimous verdict, the jury agreed that Musk had waited too long to file his lawsuit, leaving all of his claims essentially expired. Musk had accused Altman of breaching a non-profit contract by shifting the ChatGPT-maker to a for-profit company after Musk donated $38 million (£28.5 million) early in OpenAI’s history.
According to BBC News, jurors spent just about two hours deliberating on the case, but they had spent three weeks viewing internal correspondence and hearing testimony from Musk, Altman, and other tech industry executives like Microsoft’s chief executive Satya Nadella. Musk had accused Microsoft of aiding and abetting OpenAI in its allegedly improper transition to a more for-profit company, but those claims were dismissed as a matter of law given the jury’s findings on the two claims against OpenAI.
Carl Tobias, a law professor and chair at the University of Richmond School of Law, said that the jurors made a “very fact-based decision” about the case. “This case seemed kind of weird and crazy, but this is why we trust juries, because they bring the common sense of the community to resolve factual disputes,” Tobias said. On the trial’s first day, Musk took the stand wearing a dark suit and tie and was asked by one of his lawyers what the legal action was about. “It’s actually very simple,” he said. “It’s not OK to steal a charity… If it’s okay to loot a charity, the entire foundation of charitable giving will be destroyed.”
Altman told the jury during his own testimony that Musk not only backed the idea of OpenAI becoming a for-profit business, he had vied for control of it for the long run. The lawsuit was in some ways a culmination of the animosity between Musk and Altman built up since then. Following the verdict, Sam Singer, a spokesman for OpenAI, said from outside the Oakland courthouse that the verdict was a “tremendous victory”. “This was nothing but an effort by Mr Musk to slow down a competitor,” he said, adding that it was a victory “for the justice system as well”. Musk’s attorney indicated the possibility of an appeal, suggesting that the case could continue to unfold in the courts. Legal experts believe that an appeals court is unlikely to overturn such a fact-specific decision from a jury, and a judge who agreed with it.
