OpenAI said last week Musk had tried to enlist his rival Mark Zuckerberg in his bid for the AI company earlier this year, but that the Meta boss did not come on board. OpenAI then requested the Judge to order Meta to produce documents and communications related to any bid for the company. Meta asked the Judge to deny the request, saying it should seek relevant documents directly from Musk and his AI startup xAI.

In a filing late on Tuesday, Musk’s lawyers said OpenAI had already received documents related to the bid from him and his AI startup. They added that OpenAI’s “expansive discovery” was irrelevant to the current phase of the trial.

However, lawyers for OpenAI and Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman asked the Judge to reject Musk’s assertions and said they were not seeking “expansive” and “sprawling” discovery and that the relevant requests for documents were targeted and “span weeks, not years.”

“Plaintiffs have sought to explain the absence of bid-related documents by representing that their communications were primarily oral. If that is true, then the need for depositions, of Musk, an xAI representative, and other co-bidders, is even more acute,” they wrote.

–Reuterrs–