A federal judge in California, citing insufficient evidence for legal action, rejected an attempt by tech billionaire Elon Musk to prevent OpenAI’s shift to a for-profit model.
Highlighting the potential harm and public interest, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers offered to expedite the trial in order to allay worries regarding OpenAI’s transition.
Musk said that OpenAI’s conversion may cause market instability and deter investment in competitors, which is why he filed the injunction to keep the company nonprofit.
The court ruling comes weeks after ChatGPT boss Sam Altman turned down a $97.4 billion bid to take over his company, OpenAI, by a consortium of investors led by Elon Musk.
READ ALSO: Sam Altman rejects Elon Musk-led $97.4bn bid to acquire OpenAI
Recall that in February, Elon Musk said it had offered $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, in a move that comes months after he sued the artificial intelligence company.
In a statement, Musk, who founded OpenAI in 2015 but left in 2018, said, “It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force it once was.”
Marc Toberoff, Musk’s lawyer, also acknowledged that he presented the board with his offer for “all assets” of the tech company—a move that is likely to intensify long-standing tensions with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
However, the $97.4 billion bid, which is meant to block the artificial intelligence company from transforming into a for-profit firm, was rejected by Altman.
On Musk’s social media site X (formerly Twitter), Altman responded to the bid by writing: “No thank you, but if you want, we can buy Twitter for $9.74 billion.”
Source: Ripples