Yet another lawsuit to OpenAI's lengthy list, and this time billionaire Elon Musk is the one spearing the case against OpenAI and their practices.
According to the Associated Press, The lawsuit is based on the Tesla CEO's claim that OpenAI is breaching their contract to serve humanity and to keep their services public. He points towards their recent $13 billion deal with Microsoft and their new practice of keeping the code for their latest AI products a secret.
The lawsuit was filed by Elon Musk on Thursday in the San Francisco County Superior Court. Getting into the specifics, Elon Musk claims that OpenAI and Sam Altman have breached the company's founding agreement to ensure that their research and artificial intelligence is used for the benefit and advancement of humanity.
"OpenAI has been transformed into a closed-source de facto subsidiary of the largest technology company, Microsoft," the complaint mentions. "Under its new Board, it is not just developing but is actually refining an AGI [artificial general intellgience] to maximize profits for Microsoft, rather than for the benefit of humanity."
Musk was actually one of the cofounders of OpenAI back when it was formed in 2015, and he made his exit in 2018. He claims that he invested $100 million at the founding of the company, but he later reduced this claim to $50 million.
Musk owns his own AI company called xAI, which recently released its first product Grok on X. Some might consider this move from Musk to be hypocritical considering his own Billionaire status, but it will definitely impact the discussion around AI companies in general.
Many have been critical of AI companies, like OpenAI, and their humanitarian posturing, despite the billions they make in private revenue. While many others have sued the company in the past for issues such as plagiarism, Musk has the financial backing to see the case through until a conclusion is reached.
It will be interesting to see how the collision between these two parties will change the future landscape of AI development.