OpenAI Being Sued by Elon Musk for Allegedly Breaching Contract to Prioritize Profit Over Humanity

By Moon Harper

Mar 02, 2024 12:12 AM EST

Elon Musk has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and its CEO, Sam Altman, for shifting away from its original mission of developing AI for the betterment of humanity instead of profit.

The Breach of Contract Allegation

The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco on Thursday evening, sets up a conflict between billionaire Musk and the startup he helped establish, which had now garnered billions of dollars in funding from Microsoft, claiming a breach of contract when Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman initially approached him to create an open-source, non-profit organization in 2015, but now shifted to profit-making endeavors.

A Petition for OpenAI to Release its Research and Technology for Transparency

Musk petitioned the court for a ruling requiring OpenAI to release its research and technology to the public and to prevent the startup from using its assets, including its advanced AI model GPT-4, for the financial benefit of Microsoft or any individual.

OpenAI, Microsoft, and Musk have not yet responded to comment.

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who acquired Twitter for forty-four billion dollars in October 2022, has repeatedly advocated for AI regulation. He resigned from OpenAI's board in 2018 and has frequently voiced concerns about Microsoft's relationship with the startup.

Musk stated in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in April of last year that Microsoft has significant influence over, if not direct control of, OpenAI at present.

Ongoing Antitrust Investigation

The partnership is under antitrust investigation in the United States and Britain, caused by a boardroom conflict that led to Altman's sudden removal and reinstatement and establishment of a new interim board.

According to the Washington Post's report on Thursday, OpenAI intends to nominate multiple new board members in March, when it just announced a non-voting observer seat on the board in November.

Musk's claims of breach of contract, which rely partially on an email exchange between Musk and Altman, may not withstand scrutiny in court, according to certain legal experts.

Brian Quinn, a law professor at Boston College Law School, noted that while contracts can be established through a sequence of emails, the lawsuit references an email resembling a proposal and a "one-sided discussion." Quinn emphasized that if Musk asserts that the lone email in Exhibit 2 constitutes the entire contract, his argument will unlikely succeed.

Musk Challenging Tech Firms with xAI

Musk has launched a competing AI initiative through his startup xAI, which comprises engineers recruited from leading U.S. technology companies like Google and Microsoft.

The startup introduced its ChatGPT competitor, Grok, for Premium+ subscribers of social media platform X in December, seeking to develop what Musk described as a "maximum truth-seeking AI."

The billionaire, who has characterized AI as a "double-edged sword," joined a cohort of AI experts and industry leaders last year in advocating for a six-month halt in the advancement of systems surpassing OpenAI's GPT-4, citing significant risks to humanity and society.

Since its introduction, ChatGPT has been embraced by companies for various purposes, spanning from summarizing documents to coding, sparking competition among Big Tech firms to roll out their generative AI-based solutions.