US judge signals Elon Musk's xAI may lose lawsuit accusing Altman's OpenAI of stealing trade secrets

A U.S. federal judge signaled on ‌Friday she may dismiss a lawsuit by Elon ​Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI accusing Sam Altman’s rival OpenAI of stealing trade secrets

A U.S. federal judge signaled on ‌Friday she may dismiss a lawsuit by Elon ​Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI accusing Sam Altman’s rival OpenAI of stealing trade secrets to gain an unfair advantage in developing AI technology.

U.S. District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco said her “tentative view” is to grant OpenAI’s motion to dismiss xAI’s lawsuit, pending oral arguments on February 3. ​She also said tentatively that xAI could amend its ⁠claims if she dismissed its case.

Lawyers for xAI and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Musk’s startup sued OpenAI in September, accusing it ​of hiring xAI employees away ⁠to obtain confidential information related to the AI chatbot Grok.

OpenAI, known for its ChatGPT chatbot, countered by accusing Musk of conducting a “campaign to harass a competitor with unfounded legal ‌claims” because xAI could not keep up with ChatGPT.

In ‌a four-page filing outlining her thoughts, Lin said Musk’s startup did not plausibly allege that OpenAI ‍acquired or encouraged the theft of trade secrets, despite allegations that some former xAI employees downloaded source code before leaving.

Lin also ‍said it was not plausible to infer from xAI’s complaint that OpenAI used xAI’s trade secrets, or the former xAI employees used them on the job after joining OpenAI.