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Over three months after filing a lawsuit accusing OpenAI of going against its original mission, Elon Musk is dropping the suit.
Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI but stepped away in 2018 and now owns rival AI startup xAI. He sued OpenAI in late February in California state court, alleging that the ChatGPT-maker was going against its open-source founding principles and creating AI “to maximize profits for Microsoft, rather than for the benefit of humanity.”
His lawsuit prompted OpenAI leaders to release internal emails he sent from 2015 to 2018 encouraging them to seek funding.
Musk decided to file to dismiss the suit on Tuesday, and the case was dismissed, according to court documents obtained by CNBC. 
Elon Musk, co-founder of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X. (Photo by Apu Gomes/Getty Images)
The case could have been dismissed without Musk dropping it. OpenAI had already moved to throw out Musk’s claims and a judge was going to decide on the matter at a hearing originally scheduled for Wednesday in San Francisco, per CNBC.
Though the case is over, Musk is still publicly calling out OpenAI.
On Monday, Musk criticized Apple’s decision to work with OpenAI and bring ChatGPT to the iPhone and said that he would ban Apple devices at his companies.
He wrote, “Apple has no clue what’s actually going on once they hand your data over to OpenAI. They’re selling you down the river.”
Musk has previously called out Google, OpenAI, and Meta’s AI efforts and raised $6 billion last month for his AI startup.
Related: Elon Musk Threatens to Ban Employees from Using Apple Products
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Tech giant Google has taken legal action against a group of crypto scammers, alleging their involvement in defrauding more than 100,000 people worldwide.
Filed on Thursday, the lawsuit accuses the scammers of uploading fraudulent investment and cryptocurrency exchange apps to Google Play, Google’s official app store for Android devices.
What’s the lawsuit about?
The lawsuit, a first-of-its-kind move by a tech company against crypto scammers, aims to set a legal precedent and establish protections for users.
According to Google, the defendants made multiple misrepresentations to the company to upload their fraudulent apps, including false information about their identity, location, and the nature of the applications.
The group of scammers, identified as Yunfeng Sun (also known as Alphonse Sun) and Hongnam Cheung (also known as Zhang Hongnim or Stanford Fischer), allegedly conducted their scheme since at least 2019.
The lawsuit alleges that the scammers employed various methods to lure victims into downloading their apps, including text message campaigns, online promotional videos, and affiliate marketing campaigns.
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Once downloaded, the fraudulent apps were designed to appear legitimate, with users led to believe they were earning returns on their investments. However, users were unable to withdraw their investments or profits, leading to substantial losses.
Google claims that despite its efforts to take down the fraudulent apps, the scammers would create new ones and upload them to Google Play using deceptive tactics to obfuscate their identities.
Google counsel said this in an interview
Halimah DeLaine Prado, General Counsel at Google, stated in an exclusive on-camera interview with CNBC Crypto World that the lawsuit presents a unique opportunity for the company to combat bad actors involved in extensive crypto schemes.
Prado emphasized the importance of using resources to protect users and deter future fraudulent activities.
The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, brings civil claims under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law, as well as breach of contract claims against the defendants.
Google seeks a permanent injunction against the defendants, as well as damages for expenses incurred in investigating the breach and ensuring user safety and integrity.
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Video-sharing platform TikTok has filed a federal lawsuit over the pending ban of the app in the state of Montana. As we reported last week, the Montana ban is set to come into effect on January 1st, 2024.
TikTok has, unsurprisingly, reacted to the news, and the company has moved forward with a lawsuit designed to challenge and overturn the decision. According to TikTok, the ban is unconstitutional and is in direct violation of the first amendment, which protects freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
An announcement on the TikTok Comms Twitter account confirmed that the company would be challenging the Montana ban, stating that it is pursuing legal means to both safeguard its business and protect users in the state of Montana.
The company went on to assert that it is confident about the challenge, claiming that its case is based on facts and evidence. This could suggest that TikTok believes the ban is politically or ideologically motivated, rather than being based on anything concrete.
Pressure on TikTok has mounted in recent months, particularly regarding how it collects, stores, and manages user data. The app has already been banned in India, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, while its use has been banned on official devices in the governments of the US, UK, Australia, and most of the EU.
A blanket ban in Western countries seemed unlikely until the news emerged about the Montana ban. The ban is said to be designed to protect people in Montana from covert Chinese data gathering, an activity in which TikTok is widely believed to be complicit.
The popular video-sharing platform has vehemently denied the accusations, building dedicated US data processing centres in an effort to allay the fears of Western governments.
However, it would seem that TikTok’s efforts have been in vain. The Montana ban represents a significant shift in attitude and will be the first Western territory to implement a blanket ban that prohibits both government officials and citizens from using the app.
While citizens found to be using the app after the ban will not be prosecuted, TikTok itself could be faced with fines of $10,000 per day if it is in breach of the new rules. Whether TikTok’s lawsuit is successful or not, the company will likely face increasing pressure and more stringent sanctions as its data handling policies come under further scrutiny.
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Twitter CEO Elon Musk has launched a threat at Microsoft, tweeting on April 19th, “They trained illegally using Twitter data. Lawsuit time.”
What is he talking about? Well, Musk is accusing the technology giant of using data stolen from Twitter in its training. However, what the tweet was replying to has raised some eyebrows. His tweet was responding to a post from Twitter Daily News telling the platform that Microsoft had dropped Twitter from its advertising platform due to a refusal to pay Twitter’s API fees. This means that ad buyers cannot access their Twitter accounts via Microsoft’s social management tool.
Microsoft isn’t the only one. Since Musk took over the platform, major companies like Apple have halted advertising on the site due to concerns about how content is moderated on the platform.
There was no further evidence or details provided to support Musk’s accusations and Microsoft has declined to offer a comment.
However, the CEO has discussed Twitter’s database before, saying in a tweet: “Ripping off the Twitter database, demonetizing it (removing ads) and then selling our data to others isn’t a winning solution.”
Oh, but there was one correspondence on the matter from Twitter to the BBC.
Said the BBC: “Twitter’s press email responded to a query with a customary poo emoji.”
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Basketball legend and businessman Shaquille O’Neal was served legal documents on Sunday in the FTX lawsuit, after allegedly dodging the paperwork for months. The lawsuit is targeting FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and the company’s celebrity endorsers for defrauding investors.
Adam Moskowitz, co-counsel for investors on the FTX class action suit and partner at Moskowitz Law Firm, said that Shaq was “hiding and driving away from our process servers for the past three months,” per Coindesk.
“Plaintiffs in the billion $ FTX class action case just served @SHAQ outside his house,” the Moskowitz Law Firm tweeted. “His home video cameras recorded our service and we made it very clear that he is not to destroy or erase any of these security tapes, because they must be preserved for our lawsuit.”
Prior to the update on Sunday evening, Moskowitz Law Firm tweeted at Shaq on April 13th saying that “all other FTX celebrities have agreed to receive their complaints,” and called on the NBA Hall of Famer to have “courtesy and honor” in allowing the lawyers to deliver the papers.
You have been running from us for months & all other FTX celebrities have agreed to receive their complaints. Please have the courtesy & honor to simply allow our process servers tomorrow to deliver our legal complaint on your behalf, so you can defend your actions in this matter
— The Moskowitz Law Firm (@moskowitzesq) April 14, 2023
The FTX class action lawsuit claims Bankman-Fried and other public figures defrauded investors by promoting the cryptocurrency in what ultimately was a “Ponzi scheme,” per court documents. Other celebrities implicated in the lawsuit are Tom Brady, Gisele Bündchen, Stephen Curry, and Kevin O’Leary.
Related: ‘I Was Blindsided’: Gisele Bündchen Breaks Silence on FTX Collapse
“A lot of people think I’m involved, but I was just a paid spokesperson for a commercial,” O’Neal told CNBC in December.
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Juul Labs will pay West Virginia $7.9 million to settle a lawsuit over the e-cigarette company’s marketing tactics targeting teens, the state’s Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announced on Monday.
CBS News said the smoking company violated the state’s Consumer Credit and Protection Act and was using social media and popular influencers to unfairly target teens in its marketing.
Morrisey said that Juul “deceived consumers about its nicotine strength, misrepresented the nicotine equivalency of its products to traditional cigarettes and understated the risks of addiction that occur with such powerful levels of nicotine,” per CNN.
CBS News said a report from 2020 found more than 60% of high school students in West Virginia had tried e-cigarettes in 2019, which was 44% higher than in 2017.
Morrisey said in a statement, “This settlement puts companies like Juul in check to not copy big tobacco’s playbook and gear marketing strategies toward underage people,” per CBS News.
Juul Labs
The Associated Press quoted the company: “With West Virginia having the highest cigarette-smoking rate in the U.S., we hope that some funds will go directly to interventions to reduce the use of combustible cigarettes and improve public health in the state.”
CNN said terms of the agreement require Juul Labs to finance resources against underage drug use and create smoking-cessation programs.
“In a statement, a Juul company spokesperson said the settlement is ‘another step in its ongoing commitment to resolve issues from the company’s past,’” the news outlet reported.
According to Morrisey, 14.3% of West Virginia high schoolers used e-cigarettes at least once in the past 30 days, which is higher than the national average of 13.2%, per CNN.
Previous lawsuits
According to NPR, Juul settled similar lawsuits with 37 states and territories throughout 2022, totaling more than 5,000 cases with 10,000 plaintiffs about the company’s vaping products.
The Deseret News reported last year that Utah will be receiving about $8.6 million over six years, the outcome of a tentative $438.5 million settlement involving several states that sued the company with the same arguments.
Concerning that settlement, Utah Department of Commerce Executive Director Margaret Busse said in a statement that it “represented a big win against those who purposely market dangerous products to youth.”
CBS News said last year the U.S. Food and Drug Administration placed a temporary hold on the decision to stop Juul from marketing and distributing products after a legal challenge from the smoking company.
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