Elon Musk Sues OpenAI For Alleged Startup Mission Violations

Elon Musk has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman (photo: x @teslaownersSV)

JAKARTA - Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, on charges that the company left its original mission to develop artificial intelligence (AI) for human gain, not for financial gain.

The lawsuit filed on Thursday evening 29 February, at the California High Court in San Francisco is an affirmation of Musk's protracted rejection of the startup he had founded.

OpenAI, which has since become the face of a generative AI, has received partial attention for receiving billions of dollars in funding from Microsoft. Musk then founded his own artificial intelligence startup, xAI, which was launched in July last year.

In the lawsuit, Musk accused a contract breach, stating that Altman and his partner, Greg Brockman, initially approached him to make the source company open, non-profit. However, according to Musk, the startup founded in 2015 is now focusing on financial income.

Musk stated that the three founders of OpenAI initially agreed to work on general artificial intelligence (AGI), a concept that machines could handle tasks like humans, but in a way that "profits humanity." However, according to the lawsuit, OpenAI "improved its stance agreement" in 2023 when releasing its strongest language model, GPT-4, as Microsoft's product effectively.

Musk filed a lawsuit to force OpenAI to make its research and technology publicly available and prevent this startup from using its assets, including GPT-4, for Microsoft's or any individual financial gain.

However, top executive OpenAI rejected some of the claims made by Musk in its lawsuit. OpenAI, Microsoft, and Musk did not comment on the lawsuit.

Musk also submitted a request for a GPT-4 and a new, more sophisticated technology called Q* to be considered as AGI and therefore outside Microsoft's license to OpenAI.

Regarding Musk's accusations, some legal experts argue that claims of contract violations, which are partly based on an email between Musk and Altman, may not hold back in court.

Musk, who runs the electric car company Tesla, rocket company SpaceX, and social media platform X, has several times called for artificial intelligence regulation.