A US jury ruled against Elon Musk in his lawsuit against OpenAI today, finding that the artificial intelligence company was not liable to the world's richest man for allegedly deviating from its original mission to benefit humanity, Reuters reports.
In a unanimous verdict, a jury in federal court in Oakland, California, found that Musk had filed the lawsuit too late.
The jury deliberated for less than two hours.
The trial was widely seen as a pivotal moment for the future of OpenAI and artificial intelligence in general - both in terms of how it should be used and who should benefit from it, according to Reuters.
After the verdict, Musk's lawyer said he reserved the right to appeal, but the judge hinted that he could have a difficult task, as the question is whether the statute of limitations had expired before Musk filed the lawsuit.
"There is a significant amount of evidence supporting the jury's conclusion, which is why I was prepared to dismiss the case immediately," said U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers.
In a 2024 lawsuit, Musk accused OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altman, and President Greg Brockman of manipulating him into paying $38 million, then behind his back, attaching a for-profit business to the nonprofit and accepting tens of billions of dollars from Microsoft and other investors.
Musk called the behavior of the OpenAI defendants "charity theft."
OpenAI was founded in 2015 by Altman, Musk, and a few others. Musk left the board of directors in 2018, and OpenAI was founded as a for-profit business the following year.
People use artificial intelligence for numerous purposes, such as education, facial recognition, financial advice, journalism, legal research, medical diagnoses, and harmful "deepfake" content.
Many people express distrust of this technology and worry that it could displace them from their jobs.
The verdict followed 11 days of testimony and presentations, during which the credibility of Musk and Altman was repeatedly questioned, according to Reuters.
Each side accused the other of being more interested in money than in serving the public.
In his closing argument, Musk's lawyer, Steven Molo, reminded jurors that several witnesses questioned Altman's honesty or labeled him a liar, and that Musk did not give an unconditional affirmative answer when asked during the trial whether he was completely reliable.
"Sam Altman's credibility is directly at stake. If you don't trust him, they can't win," Molo said.
Musk accused OpenAI of illegally trying to enrich investors and insiders at the expense of the nonprofit, and of failing to prioritize the safety of the AI. He also claimed that Microsoft knew all along that OpenAI cared more about money than altruism.
OpenAI responded that it was Musk who saw an opportunity to make money and waited too long to make the claim that OpenAI violated its founding agreement to build safe artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity.
"Mr. Musk may have the Midas touch in some areas, but not in artificial intelligence," said William Savitt, an attorney for OpenAI, in closing arguments.
OpenAI is competing with artificial intelligence companies such as Anthropic and xAI, and is preparing for a possible initial public offering that could value the company at a trillion dollars.
A Microsoft executive testified that Microsoft spent more than $100 billion on a partnership with OpenAI.
Musk's xAI is now part of his space and rocket company SpaceX, which is preparing an initial public offering of shares that could exceed OpenAI's in size.
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