(March 12): OpenAI rebutted Elon Musk’s claims against it in a court filing, saying that the Tesla Inc billionaire’s claims “rest on convoluted — often incoherent — factual premises”.

The strongly worded response was lodged after Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, chief executive officer Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman. Musk alleged the start-up had strayed from its mission to build responsible AI and that it had become beholden to Microsoft Corp, its largest investor. OpenAI also pushed back against those claims in a blog post last week that included emails Musk had sent to some of the start-up’s employees.

The company stresses that it did not violate its founding agreement because “there is no founding agreement, or any agreement at all with Musk, as the complaint itself makes clear”.

“The relief Musk seeks is as extraordinary as his claims are contrived,” the company said in its filing, which was made in the San Francisco state court. “Musk requests an order compelling OpenAI to reorganise and distribute its technology in accordance with the terms of his fictitious contract.”

The filing also argues that if discovery began in this case, Musk would use the suit to get access to OpenAI’s “proprietary records and technology”, and warned that demands for discovery “would need to be carefully policed”.