{"id":678234,"date":"2026-05-18T20:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T20:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/678234\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T20:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T20:59:11","slug":"california-jury-in-elon-musk-lawsuit-unanimously-sides-with-openai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/678234\/","title":{"rendered":"California jury in Elon Musk lawsuit unanimously sides with OpenAI"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

A U.S. jury on Monday ruled against Elon Musk in his lawsuit against OpenAI, finding the artificial intelligence company not liable to the world’s richest person for having \u200callegedly strayed from its original mission to benefit humanity.<\/p>\n

In a unanimous verdict, the jury in Oakland, Calif., Federal Court said Musk had brought his case too late. The jury deliberated less than two hours. <\/p>\n

The trial had widely been seen as a critical moment for the future of OpenAI and artificial intelligence generally, both in how it should be \u200bused and who should benefit from it. <\/p>\n

People use AI for myriad purposes, such \u200bas education, facial recognition, financial advice, journalism, legal research, medical diagnoses and harmful deepfakes.<\/p>\n

Following the verdict, Musk said the the judgement sets a “terrible precedent” and plans to appeal, adding the verdict “never actually ruled on the merits of the case, just on a caldendar technicality.”<\/p>\n

However, the judge suggested Musk may have an uphill battle because whether the statute of limitations ran out before Musk sued was a factual issue.<\/p>\n

\"ABoxes related to Musk’s lawsuit are moved into the federal courthouse in Oakland on Monday. (Manuel Orbegozo\/Reuters)<\/p>\n

“There’s a substantial amount \u200bof evidence to support the jury’s finding, which is why I was prepared to dismiss on the \u2060spot,” U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez \u2060Rogers said. <\/p>\n

In his 2024 lawsuit, Musk accused OpenAI, its chief \u200cexecutive Sam Altman and its president Greg Brockman of manipulating him into giving $38 million, then going behind his back by attaching a for-profit business to its original nonprofit and accepting tens of billions of dollars from Microsoft and other investors.<\/p>\n

Musk called the OpenAI defendants’ conduct “stealing a charity.” <\/p>\n

OpenAI was founded by Altman, Musk and several others in 2015. Musk \u2060left its board in 2018, and OpenAI set up a for-profit business the next year. <\/p>\n

WATCH | OpenAI violated Canadian privacy laws, investigation finds:\"\"<\/p>\n

OpenAI violated Canadian privacy laws, joint investigation says<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s privacy watchdog is calling out OpenAI for improperly using Canadians’ personal data to train the first model of ChatGPT. A joint investigation found it violated Canadian privacy laws, leaving adults and children dangerously exposed.<\/p>\n

People use AI for myriad purposes such as education, facial recognition, financial advice, journalism, legal research, medical diagnoses and harmful deep-fakes. <\/p>\n

Many \u2060people express distrust \u2060of the technology and worry it could displace \u200cpeople from their jobs.<\/p>\n

The verdict followed 11 days of testimony and arguments that saw Musk’s and Altman’s credibility come under repeated attack.<\/p>\n

Each side accused the other of being more interested in money than serving the public.<\/p>\n

In his closing argument, Musk’s lawyer Steven Molo reminded jurors that several witnesses questioned Altman’s candour or branded him a liar and that Altman did not \u200bgive an unqualified yes when asked during the trial if he was completely trustworthy. <\/p>\n

“Sam \u200cAltman’s credibility is directly at issue,” Molo said. “If you don’t believe him, they cannot win.”<\/p>\n

\"AOpenAI CEO Sam Altman arrives at the federal in Oakland on Thursday. (Manuel Orbegozo\/Reuters)<\/p>\n

Musk accused OpenAI of wrongfully trying to enrich investors and insiders at the non-profit’s expense and failing to prioritize AI’s safety. He also contended Microsoft knew all along that OpenAI cared more about money than being altruistic.<\/p>\n

OpenAI countered it was Musk who saw dollar \u2060signs and he waited too long to claim OpenAI breached its founding agreement to build \u2060safe artificial intelligence to benefit humanity.<\/p>\n

“Mr. Musk may have the Midas touch in some \u2060areas, \u2060but not in AI,” William Savitt, a \u200blawyer for OpenAI, said in his closing argument. <\/p>\n

WATCH | Should Ottawa regulate AI in Canada?:\"\"<\/p>\n

Should the government regulate AI in Canada?<\/p>\n

Chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton speaks Niki Sharma, B.C. attorney general and deputy premier, about the ongoing concerns abut safeguards around OpenAI following the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting, and what regulations the B.C. government is calling for.<\/p>\n

OpenAI competes with companies such as Anthropic and \u200bxAI, and is preparing for a \u2060possible initial public offering that could value the business at $1 trillion US.<\/p>\n

Microsoft has spent more than $100 billion on its partnership with OpenAI, a Microsoft executive testified.<\/p>\n

Musk’s xAI is now part of his space and rocket company SpaceX, which is preparing an initial public offering (IPO) that could exceed OpenAI’s in size. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,61],"class_list":["post-678234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}