"U.S. District Judge dismisses poaching lawsuit against OpenAI with leave for xAI to amend. No evidence of misconduct by OpenAI in allegations of trade sec
Senior AI Reporter for The Verge, Elizabeth Lopatto, secured a legal victory for OpenAI on Tuesday in a case involving allegations of poaching and trade secret theft by xAI. The court granted OpenAI's motion to dismiss the lawsuit with leave to amend, allowing xAI to refile with modified claims.
In her ruling, US District Judge Rita F. Lin stated that there is no evidence of misconduct by OpenAI in the current allegations. Instead, she pointed to eight former xAI employees who joined OpenAI around the same time, with no indication that OpenAI directed their actions while leaving xAI.
xAI alleged that two former employees stole source code during their departure and communicated with an OpenAI recruiter, but there is no evidence that the recruiter instructed them to do so. Furthermore, xAI claimed that four former employees retained work chats on their devices after leaving, refused to provide certifications about confidential information, attempted to access xAI's hiring and datacenter optimization data, and simply moved to OpenAI.
Judge Lin found that these actions did not constitute illegal behavior at OpenAI. Notably absent were allegations about the conduct of OpenAI itself. xAI has yet to comment on the ruling.
This case is part of a series of legal conflicts between OpenAI and Elon Musk, who is both CEO of xAI and a former co-founder of OpenAI. Their relationship has been fraught with public disputes, lawsuits, and veiled (or not-so-veiled) insults in recent years. Their most significant conflict involves a lawsuit over OpenAI's transition from nonprofit to for-profit entity, scheduled for jury trial in April.
In response to the ruling, OpenAI wrote on its website, "We welcome the Court’s decision. This baseless lawsuit was never anything more than yet another front in Mr. Musk’s ongoing campaign of harassment."
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