Elon Musk, the owner and executive chairman of social media giant X Corp., has filed a lawsuit against ChatGPT owner OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, alleging the AI company’s alliance with Microsoft has changed its mission from building artificial intelligence systems for the benefit of humanity to corporate profits.
“OpenAI, Inc. has been transformed into a closed-source de facto subsidiary of the largest technology company in the world: Microsoft,” Musk’s lawyers argued in a lawsuit filed in San Francisco on Thursday. “Under its new board, it is not just developing but is refining an [artificial general intelligence] AGI to maximize profits for Microsoft, rather than for the benefit of humanity.”
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OpenAI, which has emerged as a leader in generative AI, which can produce text, images, and the like very quickly and is expected to disrupt businesses around the world, didn’t immediately comment.
Musk helped found OpenAI in 2015, agreeing with co-founders Altman and Greg Brockman, the president of the firm, to focus on non-profit work “for the benefit of humanity,” the court filing said. Musk left the board of the start-up in 2018 before OpenAI launched a for-profit unit.
Under its founding agreement, OpenAI would also make its code open to the public instead of walling it off for any private company’s gains, the lawsuit says. However, by embracing a close relationship with Microsoft, OpenAI and its top executives have set that pact “aflame” and are “perverting” the company’s mission, Musk alleges in the lawsuit.
Microsoft has invested about $13 billion via that part of the business, with regulators in the U.S. and beyond reviewing the alliance, according to a report in the Financial Times.
The Musk lawsuit claims against OpenAI, Altman, and Brockman include breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and unfair business practices.
