Aug 29 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI has sued a former engineer at the company for allegedly stealing trade secrets related to its Grok chatbot and taking them to rival OpenAI.
Musk's company said in the complaint, opens new tab filed on Thursday in California federal court that Xuechen Li stole confidential information related to "cutting-edge AI technologies with features superior to those offered by ChatGPT" to bring to his new job at OpenAI earlier this month.
Li, representatives of OpenAI and attorneys and spokespersons for xAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday. OpenAI is not a defendant.
The complaint underscores the rivalry between Musk's company and OpenAI and a fierce battle among tech companies for AI talent.
Musk, an OpenAI co-founder, has separately sued the company and its CEO, Sam Altman, for allegedly deviating from its original mission to benefit humanity. OpenAI countersued Musk in April for harassment.