Elon Musk has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, its co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, and its affiliated entities, alleging that OpenAI has breached their original contractual agreements by pursuing profits instead of the firm’s original mission to develop AI that benefits humanity, as reported by TechCrunch on March 1. Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI with around USD44m investments in the company, stepped down from the firm’s board in 2018. He claimed that Altman and Brockman convinced him to help found and bankroll the startup in 2015 with promises to establish an open-source, non-profit company. The funding agreement, according to Musk, required OpenAI to make its technology “freely available” to the public. However, the company has transformed into a closed-source de facto subsidiary of Microsoft [MSFT:US] with a focus on commercializing its artificial general intelligence (AGI) model, the lawsuit asserted.

In response to Musk’s allegations, OpenAI’s chief strategy officer, Jason Kwon, contended that the firm disagreed with the premise of the lawsuit, pointing out that GPT-4 is not AGI and emphasizing OpenAI’s independence. Kwon also implied that Musk’s legal action may stem from his regrets about not being involved with the company today. Some legal experts indicated that Musk’s breach of contract claims, partially based on his email exchange with Altman, might not hold up in court. Apart from accusations raised by its co-founder, OpenAI is also under scrutiny from antitrust watchdogs in the US, EU, and UK due to its close ties with Microsoft, which has invested over USD13bn in the startup.

Sources:

https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/01/elon-musk-openai-sam-altman-court/

https://www.reuters.com/legal/elon-musk-sues-openai-ceo-sam-altman-breach-contract-2024-03-01/

https://www.ft.com/content/6a4cfcd6-b39d-46bb-b40a-2ace23682996

https://www.ft.com/content/27f641cd-eefd-4486-8005-d7e388f4a616