Jury tosses Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and its boss Sam Altman

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. Jury tosses Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and its boss Sam AltmanJust now Share Save Add as preferred on GoogleLily JamaliNorth America technology correspondent, Oakland, CaliforniaReutersA California jury has tossed out Elon Musk's high-profile lawsuit against OpenAI and its boss Sam Altman. In a unanimous verdict, the case was thrown out because Musk had filed his lawsuit after a statute of limitations to bring such claims had expired. Musk had accused Altman of breaching a non-profit contract by shifting the ChatGPT-maker to a for-profit company after Musk donated $38m (£28.

Musk had argued Altman deceived him by accepting his money and then reneging on OpenAI's original non-profit mission to develop artificial intelligence (AI) technology for the benefit of humanity. Jurors spent three weeks viewing internal correspondence and hearing testimony, and arrived at a verdict on Monday after deliberating for roughly two hours. Those witnesses included Musk and Altman themselves, plus Satya Nadella, the chief executive of Microsoft, which Musk had accused of helping in the scheme.

The Details

On the trial's first day, Musk took the stand wearing a dark suit and tie and was asked by one of his lawyers what the legal action was about. "It's actually very simple," he said. "It's not OK to steal a charity...

If it's okay to loot a charity, the entire foundation of charitable giving will be destroyed. "But Altman told the jury during his own testimony that Musk not only backed the idea of OpenAI becoming a for-profit business - he wanted control of it for the long-run. "A particularly hair-raising moment was when my co-founders asked, 'If you have control, what happens when you die?

' He said something like, 'maybe it should pass to my children. '"Musk's other claims against Microsoft were dismissed as a matter of law given the jury's findings on the two claims against OpenAI. The pair started OpenAI in 2015, but Musk left in 2018 after his co-founders denied him control.

Claim, counter-claim and tech's seedy side exposed: Five things we learned in the Musk-Altman trialWhy Sam Altman and his former hero Elon Musk are taking their toxic feud to courtThe no-nonsense judge calling the shots in Musk v Altman trialSign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends.

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.