Musk and xAI have launched numerous lawsuits against OpenAI in recent years as part of a longstanding feud between Altman and Musk. The relationship between the two has grown increasingly hostile as Altman and OpenAI’s power in the tech industry has grown, with Musk previously attempting to block the AI startup’s plans to convert to a for-profit enterprise.
xAI’s latest complaint claims it discovered the alleged campaign to undermine the company while investigating allegations of trade secret theft against former engineer Xuechen Li, whom it has individually accused of taking confidential information to the ChatGPT maker in a separate lawsuit. Li has not yet responded to the allegations.
According to the complaint, OpenAI hired away former company engineer Jimmy Fraiture and an unnamed senior finance executive in addition to Li in order to obtain xAI trade secrets. Spokespeople for the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the complaint on Thursday.
The lawsuit also included a screenshot of an email sent in July by Alex Spiro, Musk and xAI’s lawyer, to a former xAI executive accusing them of breaching their confidentiality obligations. The former employee, whose name is redacted in the screenshot, responded to Spiro with a one-line email that said “suck my dick”.
