The New Legal Conflict Between Elon Musk and OpenAI

Legal Conflict Between Elon Musk and OpenAI

One of the co-founders of OpenAI, Elon Musk, decided to sue the company’s current CEO, Sam Altman, in March. Musk alleged that this legal action violated OpenAI’s efforts to remain a non-profit organization rather than becoming a commercial company. The basis of the lawsuit was claims that Musk acted contrary to OpenAI’s mission.

OpenAI quickly responded to Musk’s lawsuit by stating that Musk actually supported the business’s desire to make a profit. The company also expressed that Musk had ambitions to be the CEO. However, Musk withdrew the lawsuit in June without providing any reason.

Now, Musk has decided to file a new lawsuit against Altman and OpenAI’s president, Greg Brockman. The New York Times reports that this new lawsuit bears similarities to the previous one. In the new lawsuit, it is claimed that OpenAI, along with Altman and Brockman, failed to fulfill its commitment to present the OpenAI models as an open-source project. Instead, it is stated that they granted a proprietary license to Microsoft, forming the basis for generative AI services such as Copilot.

Musk’s attorney, Marc Toberoff, stated in an interview with The New York Times that this new lawsuit alleges that OpenAI violated U.S. extortion laws. Toberoff also claimed that OpenAI conspired to defraud Musk. Additionally, referencing Musk’s previous lawsuit, he expressed doubts about its seriousness by saying, “The previous lawsuit had no teeth, and I don’t believe in the tooth fairy.”

Among the allegations in Musk’s new lawsuit is that if Microsoft believes the company has achieved its artificial general intelligence (A.G.I.) goal, it would no longer have the right to license OpenAI models. The lawsuit requests the court to determine whether OpenAI has reached A.G.I. in its models. If the court rules that this goal has been achieved, the current agreement could be terminated.

OpenAI has not yet commented on Musk’s new lawsuit.