Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, has filed a lawsuit against a former engineer, accusing him of stealing trade secrets about its Grok chatbot and taking them straight to rival OpenAI.
According to the complaint, Xuechen Li allegedly copied “cutting-edge AI technologies with features superior to ChatGPT” onto his personal devices before joining OpenAI. xAI claims these secrets could save competitors billions in R&D and years of work.
The company also states that Li admitted to taking files, renaming them, and even wiping his browser history to cover his tracks. Just before leaving, he cashed out $7 million in xAI stock.
xAI is demanding that Li hand over his devices, return confidential material, and be barred from working with competitors, at least until the court makes a decision.
This legal clash is just the latest in the escalating AI arms race. Musk has already sued OpenAI and Apple for allegedly monopolizing the AI market, while OpenAI hit back at Musk with its own lawsuit earlier this year.
The battle over who controls the future of AI isn’t just about algorithms; it’s about power, money, and the people who hold the secrets.
