Elon Musk's Lawsuit Against OpenAI
OpenAI is an effective AI tool used by many people in the digital industry and now is facing a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk. The lawsuit claimed that OpenAI's co-founders have violated the organization's mission to develop artificial intelligence (AI) safely and for the benefit of humanity. The lawsuit has been filed in the San Francisco court.
Elon Musk is suing Altman, Brockman, and several of OpenAI’s business entities for breach of contract, fiduciary duty, and unfair business practices. He is seeking unspecified damages above $105,000.
Elon Musk expresses his concern over AI and states, “I am the reason OpenAI exists.” In an interview with CNBC, he added that he has invested around $50 million while recruiting key scientists and engineers.
Open AI’s mission was to benefit users with AI, and Elon Musk was one of the strong backers of the Open AI foundation in 2015. The planned raise was $100 million, but to avoid sounding hopeless the initial funding commitment was announced as $1 billion.
Nonetheless, OpenAI raised $90 million from other donors like Jed McCaleb, Gabe Newell, Michael Seibel, Jaan Tallinn, Ashton Eaton and Brianne Theisen-Eaton, Reid Hoffman, Pieter Abbeel, Julia Galef, and Maran Nelson) along with Elon Musk's contribution.
The actual disagreement started with the discussion about for-profit structure. Moreover, Elon Musk wanted to merge OpenAI with Tesla. Eventually, the for-profit structure was finally decided by OpenAI and Elon Musk. The main obstacle for OpenAI was that; any individual with absolute control would go against their mission. Hence, Elon left OpenAI, voicing his intention of building an AGI competitor within Tesla.
In conclusion, Elon Musk played a big role in creating OpenAI in their early days. Due to clashes of opinions and vision ended up in a departure. Either way, OpenAI takes its vision forward to develop safe and beneficial AGI while facing challenges.
Citations
Satariano, A., Metz, C. and Mickle, T. (2024a) Elon Musk sues OpenAI and Sam Altman for violating the company’s principles, The New York Times.
Perrigo, B. (2024) Why Elon Musk is suing openai and Sam Altman, Time. (Accessed: 23 March 2024).
Tan, H. (no date) Elon Musk says ‘I am the reason OpenAI exists’ and that he came up with the name, Business Insider. (Accessed: 23 March 2024).
Openai supporters (no date) OpenAI supporters. (Accessed: 23 March 2024).
Mollman, S. (2023) Elon Musk’s history with openai-the maker of A.I. chatbot CHATGPT-as told by CHATGPT itself, Fortune. (Accessed: 23 March 2024).