Elon Musk has initiated legal action against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, alleging a departure from the original mission of developing artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity rather than profit.
Elon Musk. Image credit: Steve Jurvetson via Flickr, CC BY 2.0
The lawsuit, filed on Thursday, claims that Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman initially sought Musk’s involvement in creating an open-source, non-profit organization.
Musk’s legal team argues that OpenAI’s shift toward profit-making violates the terms of the initial agreement. Furthermore, they contend that the company has maintained secrecy around the design of GPT-4, its advanced AI model.
Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI in 2015, resigned from its board in 2018. Apart from OpenAI, he oversees Tesla and SpaceX, having acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022.
Altman, a serial entrepreneur, faced dismissal from OpenAI’s former board last year, prompting concerns about the company’s mission. However, he returned with a new initial board shortly after.
OpenAI intends to appoint new board members in March, as reported by the Washington Post.
Written by Alius Noreika