Elon Musk’s attempt to immediately halt OpenAI’s conversion to a for-profit company was struck down by a US federal court on Tuesday, although the broader trial was expedited to this autumn.
OpenAI is in the process of converting from a complex non-profit structure into a more conventional for-profit company. Musk sought to derail that process late last year, claiming OpenAI and its founder Sam Altman had behaved in an anti-competitive manner and betrayed the group’s founding mission by pursuing artificial intelligence for a profit rather than the public benefit.
On that basis, Musk requested an injunction to pause the process while his litigation played out. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, of the Northern District of California, dismissed all four arguments underpinning Musk’s injunction request, writing that they “failed to meet their burden of proof for the extraordinary relief requested”.