Nandini Roy Choudhury, editor
Brief news
- Elon Musk has filed a new lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that the company and its founders violated their contract prioritizing commercial interests over public welfare.
- The initial lawsuit was withdrawn by Musk without explanation before the judge’s anticipated verdict.
- OpenAI, founded by Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, aims to develop artificial general intelligence (A.G.I.) for the betterment of humanity, but Musk claims they abandoned this mission when partnering with Microsoft.
Detailed news
The six-year-old dispute, which originated with a power conflict at the San Francisco-based start-up, was reignited by billionaire Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, according to the New York Times on Monday, August 5.
The new lawsuit, which was filed on Monday in a federal court in Northern California, alleged that OpenAI and two of its founders, Greg Brockman and Sam Altman, violated the company’s contract, which prioritizes commercial interests over the public welfare. According to the report, this is comparable to the assertion made in the initial lawsuit.
Elon Musk withdrew his initial lawsuit seven weeks ago. Musk did not provide any explanation for this action prior to the judge’s anticipated verdict.
OpenAI was established in 2015 by Sam Altman and Brockman in collaboration with Elon Musk. The lawsuit asserts that the company’s objective is to advance artificial intelligence for the advancement of humanity. Subsequently, the report alleges that both founders abandoned the mission when the company entered into a multibillion-dollar partnership with Microsoft.
The lawsuit claimed that Musk was “betrayed by Mr. Altman and his accomplices.” The New York Times’ request for comments was not promptly addressed by Open AI.
Altman responded to Musk’s initial lawsuit by stating that they intended to request the dismissal of its claims. The company’s objective is to serve the public interest by creating an artificial general intelligence (A.G.I.) machine that is capable of performing any task that the human brain is capable of, according to the report.
“The objective of OpenAI is to guarantee that A.G.I. is beneficial to all of humanity. This entails the development of A.G.I. that is both safe and beneficial, as well as the assistance in the creation of broadly distributed benefits,” they stated.
According to the report, Musk severed his affiliation with OpenAI in 2018 following a power struggle within the organization. OpenAI was established with the intention of making artificial intelligence technology available to the public without restriction, as it was deemed too hazardous to be regulated by a single entity such as Google. Open AI was restructured as a for-profit organization and received $13 billion in funding from the technology behemoth Microsoft.
In November 2023, the OpenAI board terminated Sam Altman, asserting that the founder could no longer be trusted to fulfill the organization’s objective of developing artificial intelligence for the betterment of humanity. He returned to the organization five days later, as indicated by the report.
Two months following the incident, Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI. The report alleges that the two founders have deceived Musk regarding the creation of OpenAI.
The lawsuit stated that “Elon Musk’s case against Sam Altman and OpenAI is a textbook tale of altruism over greed.” The lawsuit cited in the news report alleged that Altman, in collaboration with other defendants, intentionally courted and deceived Musk, exploiting Musk’s humanitarian apprehensions regarding the existential threats posed by AI.
According to Marc Toberoff, Musk’s attorney, Musk filed the new lawsuit on Monday, alleging that OpenAI violated federal racketeering laws by conspiring to defraud him.
“The previous suit was devoid of teeth, and I have no faith in the tooth fairy,” stated Toberoff. According to the report, he stated, “This lawsuit is significantly more forceful.”
The report indicates that OpenAI’s contract with Microsoft stipulates that the company will not possess any rights to OpenAI’s technology once the lab has attained A.G.I., as per the lawsuit. According to the report, the lawsuit also raised concerns regarding the A.G.I.’s ability to ascertain whether the Microsoft contract should be voided.
The most recent funding round of OpenAI indicates that the company is valued at over $80 billion. The report also states that OpenAI’s current technology is not A.G.I. and that the scientists are unable to construct such a system, according to industry experts.
