Elon Musk has initiated legal action against OpenAI, including its CEO Sam Altman, alleging a deviation from the organization’s original mission to develop artificial intelligence (AI) for the betterment of humanity rather than profit. The lawsuit, filed late Thursday, contends that Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman had initially approached Musk with the vision of creating an open-source, non-profit entity.
It can also be recalled an investigation was launched recently by the U.S SEC over similar issue
According to Musk’s legal team, OpenAI’s pursuit of profit, backed by Microsoft, violates the terms of their agreement, which prioritized altruistic AI development. The lawsuit, lodged in San Francisco, asserts that OpenAI has maintained secrecy around the design of its most advanced AI model, GPT-4, in contravention of their contractual obligations.
Representatives for OpenAI, Microsoft, and Musk were not immediately available for comment in response to inquiries.
Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but relinquished his board position in 2018, leads Tesla and SpaceX, while also recently acquiring Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022.
The legal dispute comes in the wake of Altman’s dismissal by OpenAI’s former board, purportedly aimed at safeguarding the organization’s mission of developing AI for the greater good. However, Altman swiftly returned to the company with a revamped board structure. OpenAI is reportedly poised to appoint new board members in March, as per reports from the Washington Post.
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s conversational AI platform, experienced exponential growth within six months of its launch in November 2022, emerging as the world’s fastest-growing software application. Its success catalyzed the emergence of competing chatbots from tech giants like Microsoft and Alphabet, as well as numerous startups capitalizing on the burgeoning interest in generative AI technology.
Since its inception, ChatGPT has found applications across various sectors, including document summarization, coding assistance, and more, prompting a race among major tech firms to introduce their own AI-driven solutions.