Elon Musk has lodged a lawsuit against OpenAI and its co-founders, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman. The revoke echoes a similar lawsuit that was dropped earlier this year. Having added ten more charges to the original five, the lawsuit was filed in a Californian court and comes under the purview of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Elon Musk’s new legal team alleges that OpenAI’s pursuit of profit has breached the company’s founding contract. Moreover, Musk claims that he was intentionally misled into supporting the venture.
The lawsuit expresses Musk’s bitterness towards Altman for playing on Musk’s concerns over the existential threats posed by artificial intelligence. The latter had sold Musk the idea of a non-profit AI company that would pool in top scientists and share the technology for humanitarian benefits. Altman had assured Musk that OpenAI would pose a formidable challenge to Google’s DeepMind in the fight for Artificial General Intelligence.
However, when Microsoft’s huge investments started pouring into OpenAI and the AI-firm moved to make profits from its closed proprietary AI models, Musk truly grasped his predicament. The lawsuit claims that Musk’s time, resources, and his personal vision were all exploited by Altman.
OpenAI’s indulgence in profit-making activities has been seen as a dishonest move by Musk that resulted in the company’s valuation hitting the $100bn mark. Through this lawsuit, Musk aims to strip the defendants of their dishonestly amassed fortunes.
Musk, a critic of the way in which AI companies perceive artificial intelligence as a gateway to enormous profit and global hegemony, considered his dealings with Altman as contractual agreements. The matter of whether these dealings qualify to be termed a contract is still up for legal debate.
Amidst these tensions, OpenAI has been dealing with internal disruptions, too. Peter Deng, OpenAI’s Product leader, parted ways with the company. John Schulman, a co-founder, also left and Greg Brockman is reported to be on an extended leave. Sam Altman is now steering one of the world’s mightiest AI companies and Musk accuses him of prioritizing personal gain over concern for mankind.
The lawsuit is emblematic of Musk’s struggle against the unchecked exploitation of AI and represents his disgust towards OpenAI and its co-founders’ greed.
