(Reuters) -OpenAI asked a federal judge on Thursday to dismiss a lawsuit alleging it lured employees away from Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI to steal its trade secrets, calling the case part of Musk's "ongoing harassment" of the company.

OpenAI denied xAI's allegations and said its claims were false and unsubstantiated.

"Under Musk's leadership, talented xAI employees are leaving in droves, and some are coming to OpenAI to help advance OpenAI's mission," the filing said. "Those employees have every right to go where they choose, and OpenAI has the right to hire them."

Spokespeople and an attorney for xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the filings. A spokesperson for OpenAI declined to comment. 

xAI's lawsuit, filed last week in federal court in San Francisco, alleged that OpenAI engaged in a "deeply troubling pattern" of hiring away former xAI employees to gain access to trade secrets related to its AI chatbot Grok, which it said was more advanced than OpenAI's ChatGPT.

The lawsuit is part of a broader legal battle between Musk and OpenAI, which he co-founded alongside OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, amid a high-stakes race in Silicon Valley for talent and to gain market share in the burgeoning AI industry. 

xAI has separately sued Apple for allegedly conspiring with OpenAI to suppress rival platforms. Apple and OpenAI denied the allegations and asked the court to dismiss that case on Tuesday.

Musk is also suing OpenAI over its conversion to a for-profit company, while OpenAI has countersued Musk for harassment.

OpenAI on Thursday called xAI's trade-secret lawsuit an attempt to intimidate OpenAI and "distract from the failures of [Musk's] own competitive AI effort."

"The truth is that xAI is hemorrhaging talent to other competitors, including OpenAI," OpenAI said.