Friday, March 1st 2024
Elon Musk Sues Open AI and Sam Altman for Breach of Founding Contract
Elon Musk in his individual capacity has sued Sam Altman, Gregory Brockman, Open AI and its affiliate companies, of breach of founding contract, and a deviation from its founding goal to be a non-profit tasked with the development of AI toward the benefit of humanity. This lawsuit comes in the wake of Open AI's relationship with Microsoft, which Musk says compromises its founding contract. Musk alleges breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and unfair business practices against Open AI, and demands that the company revert to being open-source with all its technology, and function as a non-profit.
Musk also requests an injunction to prevent Open AI and the other defendants from profiting off Open AI technology. In particular, Musk alleges that GPT-4 isn't open-source, claiming that only Open AI and Microsoft know its inner workings, and Microsoft stands to monetize GPT-4 "for a fortune." Microsoft, interestingly, was not named in the lawsuit as a defendant. Elon Musk sat on the original board of Open AI until his departure in 2018, is said to be a key sponsor of AI acceleration hardware used in the pioneering work done by Open AI.
Musk also requests an injunction to prevent Open AI and the other defendants from profiting off Open AI technology. In particular, Musk alleges that GPT-4 isn't open-source, claiming that only Open AI and Microsoft know its inner workings, and Microsoft stands to monetize GPT-4 "for a fortune." Microsoft, interestingly, was not named in the lawsuit as a defendant. Elon Musk sat on the original board of Open AI until his departure in 2018, is said to be a key sponsor of AI acceleration hardware used in the pioneering work done by Open AI.