OpenAI slams Musk's xAI lawsuit, calls it an attempt to bully ex-workers

OpenAI has asked a federal judge in San Francisco, US, to dismiss the lawsuit filed by xAI, which accused OpenAI of poaching employees and stealing trade secrets

In the ongoing federal case between Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI and OpenAI, the latter has described the lawsuit as Musk’s attempt to distract from the failures of his own generative AI company and to intimidate former xAI employees.

 

OpenAI Inc has asked a federal judge in San Francisco to dismiss the lawsuit filed by xAI, which accused OpenAI of poaching employees and stealing trade secrets.

 

OpenAI rejects lawsuit from xAI

 

In a court filing on Thursday (local time), OpenAI called the lawsuit “groundless” saying it was designed to generate publicity and bully employees who exercised their right to leave xAI and work elsewhere in the AI industry.

 

“This case is clearly designed to generate publicity to bully and threaten those employees who exercised their right to leave and work elsewhere in the AI industry and to try to chill further flight from xAI,” the filing said, reported Bloomberg. 

 

OpenAI denies theft allegations

 

“Unable to match OpenAI’s innovation, xAI has filed this groundless trade secret lawsuit,” OpenAI’s lawyers said. “To be clear, OpenAI does not need or want anyone’s, much less xAI’s, trade secrets to achieve OpenAI’s mission", reported Bloomberg.

 

The company emphasised that employees departing xAI were acting on their legal rights and that OpenAI is entitled to hire them.

 

Claims around employee poaching

 

xAI, which Musk launched as a competitor in the fast-moving generative AI market, filed the lawsuit last week in federal court in San Francisco. The company alleged that OpenAI had hired at least eight of its employees to gain access to proprietary information related to xAI’s chatbot, Grok. xAI claimed Grok is more advanced than OpenAI’s ChatGPT. 

xAI described OpenAI’s hiring practices as a “deeply troubling pattern” aimed at obtaining competitive AI secrets. OpenAI, however, denied these claims as false and unsubstantiated.

 

“Under Musk’s leadership, talented xAI employees are leaving in droves, and some are coming to OpenAI to help advance OpenAI’s mission,” OpenAI said in its filing. “Those employees have every right to go where they choose, and OpenAI has the right to hire them,” reported Reuters. 

 

Part of a broader legal battle

 

The trade secrets lawsuit is one element of a wider legal conflict between Musk and OpenAI. Elon Musk is also suing OpenAI over its conversion into a for-profit company, while OpenAI has countersued Musk for harassment.

 

Separately, xAI has also sued Apple, alleging the latter conspired with OpenAI to suppress rival AI platforms. Both Apple and OpenAI have denied these allegations and requested the court to dismiss the case, describing it as baseless.