Elon Musk files lawsuit against OpenAI, co-founders

Billionaire Elon Musk has sued OpenAi, the company that makes ChatGPT, and its co-founders, Greg Brockman and Sam Altman, for converting the business into a for-profit endeavour. 

Co-founder and early supporter Elon Musk stated that the goal of OpenAI was to be a non-profit that developed AI for the good of humanity.  

The CEO of Tesla asserts that he was persuaded to assist in founding and funding the firm in 2015 by Altman and Brockman on the grounds that it would be a non-profit organisation dedicated to fending off Google's threat of competition.  

The complaint claims that OpenAI was obligated under the founding agreement to make its technology "freely available" to the general public. 

The lawsuit, which was submitted late on Thursday to a San Francisco court, claims that OpenAI, the most valuable AI startup in the world, changed to a for-profit business model with an emphasis on commercialising its AGI research after joining forces with Microsoft, the most valuable company in the world, which has contributed roughly $13 billion to the startup. 

“In reality, however, OpenAI, Inc. has been transformed into a closed-source de facto subsidiary of the largest technology company in the world: Microsoft.  

In order to maximise profits for Microsoft rather than for the good of humanity, it is not just building but actually perfecting an AGI under its new board. As per the lawsuit, this constituted a flagrant violation of the Founding Agreement.  

Between 2016 and September 2020, Musk gave the non-profit more than $44 million, according to the civil lawsuit. He was the main contributor to OpenAI for the first few years, the lawsuit claims.  

Elon Musk initially voiced his displeasure with OpenAI's lack of focus on his platform, X, around a year ago.  

“OpenAI was created as an open source (which is why I named it “Open” AI), a non-profit company to serve as a counterweight to Google, but now it has become a closed source, maximum-profit company effectively controlled by Microsoft. 

“Not what I intended at all.” 

Musk quit OpenAI's board in 2018 and no longer owns an interest in the company. Musk called ChatGPT as "scary good" when it first launched in December 2022, adding that "we are not far from dangerously strong AI." 

Open AI launched a premium version of ChatGPT in February last year as it transitioned to a profit-driven business. ChatGPT Plus subscriptions cost $20 per month.  

The service's commercialization began shortly after a study report projected that the AI tool would have an estimated 100 million monthly active users in January 2023, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history.