TechFlow news — On December 1, according to TechCrunch, Elon Musk’s lawyers have filed for a preliminary injunction against OpenAI, several of its co-founders, and its investor and close partner Microsoft, seeking to prevent OpenAI and other named defendants from engaging in anti-competitive conduct. Musk, one of OpenAI's co-founders, left the company in 2018 due to disagreements over its direction.
The injunction motion was filed late Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accusing OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altman, President Greg Brockman, Microsoft, Reid Hoffman—LinkedIn co-founder and former OpenAI board member—and Dee Templeton, former OpenAI board member and Microsoft vice president—of various unlawful activities, and seeks to halt these actions. The allegations include:
• Preventing investors from supporting competitors of OpenAI, such as Musk’s own artificial intelligence company xAI;
• Benefiting from "improperly obtained competitively sensitive information" through OpenAI’s relationship with Microsoft;
• Transforming OpenAI’s governance structure into a for-profit entity and "transferring any material assets, including intellectual property owned, held, or controlled by OpenAI, its subsidiaries, or affiliates";
• Causing OpenAI to conduct business with organizations in which any defendant holds "a significant economic interest."
Musk’s legal team argues that failure to grant the injunction would result in "irreparable harm."
