Elon Musk, the owner of SpaceX, Tesla, and X, is suing OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, alleging that their nonprofit agreement was broken.
Musk claims that OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft has strayed from its core values of developing open-source artificial general intelligence (AGI) for the good of humanity in a recent filing in the Superior Court of California for the County of San Francisco.
Musk’s lawsuit describes allegations of unfair business tactics, breach of fiduciary duty, and contract breach. He calls for an injunction to stop the commercial use of AGI technology and exhorts OpenAI to revert to its open-source founding ideals.
The legal brief claims that ChatGPT-4’s March 2023 launch differed greatly from OpenAI’s guiding principles. Though hailed as a breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI), GPT-4 is, in contrast to previous iterations, a closed model. Musk contends that OpenAI’s original charitable goal is at odds with Microsoft’s financial gain from this shift toward proprietary technology.
In 2015, OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit AI research center; but, in 2020, it established a corporate arm and grew into a massive commercial enterprise. Since then, OpenAI has switched to a business-driven strategy. Musk, who co-founded OpenAI, is among the critics who claim that the business is now more concerned with speed and profit than with having a beneficial influence on people.
The Financial Times, citing two people with knowledge of the company’s finances, claims that OpenAI is one of the fastest-growing tech businesses ever, with revenues exceeding $2 billion annually thanks to the tremendous success of its flagship AI product, ChatGPT.
According to Musk, artificial intelligence poses a serious threat to human civilization. Regulators have taken notice of his strong advocacy for stringent government regulation and cautious management of AI research. Musk’s main advice has been to learn a lot in order to understand the problem better.
Musk criticizes the present OpenAI board’s competence as well, saying it lacks the technical know-how needed for ethical AGI development. Musk uses Altman’s ouster in November 2023 and his subsequent reinstatement as proof of a profit-driven plan designed to suit Microsoft’s objectives.
Musk, who served as an original board member of OpenAI until 2018, claimed that the disagreement between Altman and the board had to do with ChatGPT-4 development and the upcoming AGI technology. Musk voiced worries about the possible effects on public safety.