OpenAI Inc. says a lawsuit accusing it of stealing technology from xAI is just Elon Musk’s latest attempt to distract attention from the failures of his own generative artificial intelligence company.
“Unable to match OpenAI’s innovation, xAI has filed this groundless trade secret lawsuit,” OpenAI’s lawyers said in a court filing Thursday. “To be clear: OpenAI does not need or want anyone’s — much less xAI’s — trade secrets to achieve OpenAI’s mission.”
Musk’s startup sued Sam Altman’s firm last week in federal court in San Francisco, accusing it of poaching employees and stealing intellectual property. Musk and Altman, who worked together to launch OpenAI a decade ago, have been feuding since last year in multiple legal fights.
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In the trade secrets case, xAI claims OpenAl has hired at least eight of Musk’s employees as part of an effort to steal xAI’s proprietary information.
OpenAI is asking a federal judge in San Francisco to dismiss the suit.
“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,” according to OpenAI’s lawyers.
Representatives of xAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The case is X.AI Corp. v. OpenAI Inc., 3:25-cv-08133, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).
Photo: The Open AI logo on a laptop. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)
Topics Lawsuits