A federal judge on Wednesday indicated a jury will be allowed to decide whether artificial intelligence trailblazer OpenAI hoodwinked its billionaire co-founder Elon Musk during its evolution from a nonprofit research lab into a capitalistic enterprise now valued at $500 billion.Without issuing an official ruling, U.S.District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers made it clear that she intended to reject OpenAI's motion to dismiss a 17-month-old case that Musk filed against a San Francisco startup that he helped create in 2015.“This case is going to trial,” Gonzalez Rogers said emphatically during an occasionally testy 90-minute hearing held in Oakland, California.The judge said she still needed to figure out some of the logistics of how the trial will be set up, as well as whether to dismiss unjust enrichment allegations that Musk has made against Microsoft, which has accumulated a $135 billion stake in OpenAI since investing $1 billion in a for-profit subsidiary that the startup created in 2019.But the judge told lawyers that there is sufficient evidence for a jury to consider in a legal showdown pitting Musk — the world's richest man with an estimated fortune of $713 billion — against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, whose fortune is currently pegged at $2 billion.Both billionaires would likely be summoned to court to testify under oath if the trial proceeds.“Part of this is about whether a jury believes the people who will testify and whether they are credible,” Gonzalez Rogers said.It's unclear when the judge will schedule the trial.
Musk contributed $40 million, mostly funneled through donor-advised funds that he had set up, in addition to four Tesla vehicles.Then he and Altman had a falling out over OpenAI's future, according to evidence that has surfaced so far.Popular ReadsVenezuela live updates: Vance says US will 'control the purse strings'20 minutes agoMichael Reagan, son of former President Ronald Reagan, has died, family saysJan 6, 6:53 PMFBI releases images of seized motorcycles as search for Ryan Wedding continuesDec 30, 4:51 PMA 2017 diary entry by OpenAI's Brockman was among the information that Gonzalez Rogers cited to support her rationale for allowing Musk's lawsuit to go to trial.One of the key issues that must be decided before Musk can pursue his fraud claims against OpenAI at trial is pinpointing when the alleged deceit occurred.That's because there's a three-year statute of limitations on his fraud claims.
Gonzalez Rogers indicated she will probably let a jury first decide when the alleged fraud against Musk occurred.The trial then would be allowed to proceed to the fraud phase if it's determined that the suspected deceit began less than three years before Musk's August 2024 filing of his lawsuit.
