U.S. District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco hinted that she may dismiss a case filed by Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI (X.AI) alleging that Microsoft (MSFT)-backed OpenAI (OPENAI) hired its employees and stole trade secrets to gain an undue advantage in AI development.
In a four-page document detailing her view, Judge Lin said on Friday that she may grant OpenAI’s (OPENAI) motion to dismiss the lawsuit, based on her “tentative view” pending oral arguments on Feb. 3.
She stated that if she dismisses the case, xAI (X.AI) could add amendments to the claims and asked both parties to address her tentative reasoning at the hearing.
In the lawsuit filed in September, xAI (X.AI) alleged that the ChatGPT maker recruited three of its employees in an effort to collect confidential information related to its AI chatbot Grok. According to the suit, the employees, two engineers and a senior executive, revealed source code and other confidential information related to the company after joining OpenAI (OPENAI).
The Sam Altman-led firm hit back at the claims accusing Musk of engaging in a “campaign to harass a competitor with unfounded legal claims” because xAI (X.AI) could not keep pace with ChatGPT.
The lawsuit marks another legal dispute between the two rivals in the AI space. Earlier this month, Musk sought up to $134B from OpenAI (OPENAI) and Microsoft (MSFT) over allegations that the former defrauded him when it switched to a for-profit business in October, abandoning its founding non-profit mission.