Judge Dismisses xAI Trade Secrets Lawsuit Against OpenAI

A federal judge in San Francisco dismissed a lawsuit by Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI accusing OpenAI of stealing trade secrets related to its Grok chatbot.

US District Judge Rita Lin said xAI had failed to show that OpenAI encouraged former xAI senior engineer Xuechen Li to disclose confidential information or that its engineers knew he might have done so. She dismissed the case with prejudice, ruling that allowing it to continue would be “futile”. Lin had already dismissed an earlier version in February.

The lawsuit, originally filed last September, alleged broader misuse of confidential information, including source code, after several xAI employees left for jobs at OpenAI. The amended complaint focused mainly on a presentation Li gave while OpenAI was recruiting him.

Lin said it was routine for employers to ask candidates about their previous work and that no attempt to obtain trade secrets could be inferred from such discussions.

The ruling marked Musk’s second significant legal defeat against OpenAI in four weeks. On 18 May, a federal jury rejected his $150bn lawsuit accusing OpenAI and Sam Altman of “stealing a charity” by abandoning the company’s original nonprofit mission for personal gain.

(reuters, max)