Elon Musk is suing ChatGPT’s developer, OpenAI, alleging that the company violated the principles he agreed to when he helped found ChatGPT in 2015.
The lawsuit, also filed against OpenAI boss Sam Altman, says the company has drifted away from its original nonprofit open-source mission.
The focus is now on “maximizing profits” for major investor Microsoft, rather than “saving humanity” as originally planned.OpenAI has been contacted for comment.
The company was founded with the purpose of developing AI that can perform any task humanly possible, known as artificial general intelligence (AGI).
It was also established as a non-profit company. In other words, it wasn’t about making money.
Under these terms, Musk agreed to form OpenAI with Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman, according to the lawsuit filed in San Francisco.
He left after his third year.
This lawsuit forces OpenAI to honor its founding agreement and return to its mission of developing AGI for the benefit of humanity, not for the personal benefit of individual defendants or the world's largest technology companies.'' ” the lawsuit states.The filing comes as U.S. regulators have launched an investigation into ChatGPT creators over whether investors were misled following the drama of the November 2023 OpenAI conference, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. It was done after.Mr. Altman was abruptly expelled from the board and rejoined management a few days later.The board at the time accused Mr. Altman of not being "consistently candid" in his communications, which it said caused him to "lose confidence" in his leadership. This was a dispute in which Microsoft was heavily involved, including an offer to hire employees who were leaving OpenAI. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Musk called the situation "very concerning."His lawyers say in the lawsuit that these "startling developments" demonstrate Microsoft's growing influence over the company. "Its technologies, including GPT-4, are closed-source technologies that primarily serve Microsoft's own commercial interests," the company said.Microsoft backed his $1 billion into OpenAI for the first time in 2019 with a new "profit cap" that will allow AI companies that previously operated as nonprofits to invest in OpenAI. This was held immediately after the publication ofStructure”.Microsoft’s investment grew into his multi-year $1 billion partnership in January 2023 after the launch of his ChatGPT chatbot in OpenAI.This partnership is currently under review by UK, EU and US regulators.