Musk sues OpenAI and Sam Altman

MetaversePlanet August 6, 2024Last Updated: August 6, 2024

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Elon Musk has sued OpenAI and Sam Altman, accusing them of betraying the AI mission. In the lawsuit, Musk has once again caused a stir.

Elon Musk has sued OpenAI, its co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, and their affiliates, alleging that the creators of ChatGPT violated their original contractual agreement by prioritizing profit over their mission to develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity.

Musk faces OpenAI and Sam Altman

Elon Musk, who is a co-founder and early supporter of OpenAI, claims that Altman and Brockman persuaded him to set up and fund the venture in 2015 with promises that it would be a nonprofit focused on countering Google’s competitive threat. The lawsuit alleges that the founding agreement requires OpenAI to “freely” make its technology available to the public.

The lawsuit, filed in a San Francisco court, states that OpenAI, the world’s most valuable artificial intelligence startup, switched to a for-profit model focused on commercializing AGI research after partnering with Microsoft, the world’s most valuable company. Microsoft has invested about $13 billion in the venture.

In the lawsuit: “But in reality, OpenAI, Inc. has been transformed into a de facto closed-source subsidiary of Microsoft, the world’s largest technology company. Under the new board of directors, it is not only developing but refining an AGI to maximize profits for Microsoft rather than for the benefit of humanity. This was a clear betrayal of the Founding Agreement,” the statement said.

The lawsuit was filed after Musk raised concerns about the shift in OpenAI’s priorities last year. According to the legal complaint, Musk donated more than $44 million to the nonprofit between 2016 and September 2020. He was the largest contributor to OpenAI for the first few years, according to the lawsuit. Musk, who stepped down from OpenAI’s board of directors in 2018, was offered a stake in the for-profit arm of the startup, but he refused to accept it because he had previously taken a principled stance.

The Musk-owned social network X launched Grok last year as a competitor to ChatGPT. Altman has also touched on some of Musk’s concerns in the past, including his close ties to Microsoft. Altman said, “I love this guy. I think he’s completely wrong about that. He can say whatever he wants, but I’m proud of what we’re doing and I think we’re going to make a positive contribution to the world, and I try to stay on top of all that.”

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