Elon Musk is suing OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, for what he claims is a violation of the ChatGPT maker’s basic mission of benefitting humanity over profit.
In a complaint filed in San Francisco Superior Court, billionaire Musk claimed that when he funded OpenAI’s founding, he had an agreement with Altman and the president, Greg Brockman, to keep the AI firm as a nonprofit that would develop technology for the benefit of the public.
According to the lawsuit, OpenAI’s founding agreement required it to make its code available to the public rather than keeping it hidden for the benefit of any private corporation.
Elon Musk Sues OpenAI And CEO Sam Altman, Claiming Betrayal Of Its Goal To Benefit Humanity
However, Musk claims in the lawsuit that by pursuing a strong relationship with Microsoft, OpenAI and its top officials have set that pact “afire” and are “perverting” the company’s objective.
OpenAI declined to comment on the lawsuit Friday.
“OpenAI, Inc. has been transformed into a closed-source de facto subsidiary of the largest technology company in the world: Microsoft,” according to the lawsuit that was filed on Thursday. “Under its new Board, it is not just developing but is actually refining an AGI to maximize profits for Microsoft, rather than for the benefit of humanity.”
Artificial general intelligence (AGI) refers to general-purpose AI systems that can perform as well as — or better than — humans in a wide range of tasks.
Musk is suing for breach of contract, fiduciary duty, and unfair commercial practices. He also seeks an injunction prohibiting anyone, including Microsoft, from benefiting from OpenAI’s technology.
Musk was an early investor in OpenAI, created in 2015, and co-chaired its board with Altman. Musk’s lawsuit stated that he committed “tens of millions” of dollars to the nonprofit research institute.
Musk resigned from the board in early 2018, which OpenAI claimed would prevent conflicts of interest because the Tesla CEO was recruiting AI expertise to develop self-driving technology at the electric car manufacturer. “This will eliminate a potential future conflict for Elon,” OpenAI wrote in a February 2018 blog post. Musk has since stated concerns with the startup’s direction, although he continues to donate to the foundation.
Elon Musk Sues OpenAI And CEO Sam Altman, Claiming Betrayal Of Its Goal To Benefit Humanity
Later that year, OpenAI filed papers to create a for-profit arm and began transferring most of its workers to that firm while maintaining a nonprofit board of directors to administer the company. Microsoft made its initial $1 billion investment in the startup in 2019 and negotiated an agreement granting the software giant exclusive rights to its AI models the following year. According to the corporation, the license will expire whenever OpenAI achieves artificial general intelligence.
Its release of ChatGPT in late 2022 cemented OpenAI’s global reputation and sparked a race among tech businesses to capitalize on the public’s enthusiasm for the technology.
When the nonprofit board abruptly ousted Altman as CEO late last year for reasons that have yet to be fully disclosed, Microsoft was instrumental in driving the push to reinstate Altman as CEO and force the resignation of the majority of the old board. Musk’s complaint claimed that these modifications led the checks and balances that protect the nonprofit goal to “collapse overnight.”
One of Musk’s arguments is that the nonprofit’s directors have failed to respect their commitments to carry out its mission, but Dana Brakman Reiser, a professor at Brooklyn Law School, questions Musk’s standing to make that claim.
“It would be very worrisome if every person who cared about or donated to a charity could suddenly sue their directors and officers to say, ‘You’re not doing what I think is the right thing to run this nonprofit,'” she told me. In general, she stated that only other directors or the attorney general may file such a claim.
Even if Musk participated in the for-profit firm, his criticism is that the group is profiting too much, which contradicts its objective of making its technologies openly available.
“I care about organizations genuinely carrying out their missions rather than being seized for commercial purposes. “That is a legitimate concern,” Brakman Reiser stated. “Whether Elon Musk is the person to raise that claim, I’m less sure.”
Elon Musk Sues OpenAI And CEO Sam Altman, Claiming Betrayal Of Its Goal To Benefit Humanity
Whatever the legal merits of the accusations, a looming lawsuit battle between Musk and Altman might provide the public with insight into OpenAI’s internal arguments and decision-making, though the company’s lawyers will likely try to keep some of those records private.
“The discovery will be epic,” venture entrepreneur Chamath Palihapitiya wrote on Musk’s social media site X on Friday. Musk responded with his only public statement on the case thus far: “Yes.”
SOURCE – (AP)
