Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has taken legal action against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, alleging that they deviated from the initial mission of the startup, which was to develop artificial intelligence (AI) for the betterment of humanity rather than solely for profit.
Musk, who co-founded OpenAI, launched a lawsuit in California Superior Court in San Francisco, marking the climax of his ongoing disagreement with the startup, which has become synonymous with generative AI, thanks in part to substantial funding from Microsoft.
In the lawsuit, Musk claims a breach of contract, contending that Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman originally approached him to establish an open-source, non-profit organization.
Musk asserts that the focus has shifted from their initial goal to a profit-driven agenda since OpenAI’s establishment in 2015.
Musk recalls the founding of OpenAI, stating that the intention was to work on artificial general intelligence (AGI), emphasizing its potential to benefit humanity.
According to Musk, OpenAI’s release of GPT-4 in 2023, effectively under Microsoft’s banner, contradicted the founding principles.
Musk seeks a court order to compel OpenAI to make its research and technology publicly accessible and to prevent the startup from leveraging its assets, including GPT-4, for Microsoft’s financial gain.
OpenAI, Microsoft, and Musk declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Musk also aims to classify GPT-4 and a more advanced technology named Q* as AGI, thereby excluding them from Microsoft’s license to OpenAI.
Meanwhile, Musk’s own AI venture, xAI, comprises engineers recruited from prominent U.S. technology firms, with the goal of rivaling existing AI efforts.
Musk’s xAI has introduced Grok, a competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, for Premium+ subscribers of his social media platform, X.
The startup aligns closely with Musk’s other ventures, X and Tesla.
Musk’s stance on AI regulation and his reservations about its unchecked advancement have been evident, notably in his call for a pause in developing AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.
Despite legal scrutiny and industry competition, the evolution of AI, exemplified by ChatGPT, continues to reshape various sectors, prompting a race among major tech companies to deploy their own generative AI solutions.