Elon Musk has filed a new lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, in federal court in Northern California. The lawsuit alleges that Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman manipulated Musk into co-founding the artificial intelligence company under false pretenses. Musk claims he invested millions in OpenAI based on assurances it would be a non-profit organization prioritizing safety and openness over profits.
However, the lawsuit contends that Altman and his accomplices betrayed Musk by pursuing profit-driven motives and engaging in self-dealing practices. “The perfidy and deceit are of Shakespearean proportions,” the lawsuit alleges. Musk, who has been vocal about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence, states he was led to believe OpenAI would serve as a safer alternative to profit-driven tech giants.
Microsoft is also implicated in the lawsuit.
Musk alleges OpenAI betrayal
Musk claims the tech giant sought leverage over OpenAI by making the AI firm dependent on Microsoft’s cloud computing services despite purported value misalignments.
“Altman assured Musk that the non-profit structure guaranteed neutrality and a focus on safety and openness for the benefit of humanity, not shareholder value. But as it turns out, this was all hot-air philanthropy—the hook for Altman’s long con,” the lawsuit claims. The lawsuit seeks “a constructive trust on Defendants’ ill-gotten gains, property, and assets traceable to Musk’s significant contributions to OpenAI” and aims for “a judicial determination that OpenAI, Inc.’s license to Microsoft is null and void.
This isn’t Musk’s first legal confrontation related to OpenAI.
The Tesla CEO has previously expressed concerns about artificial intelligence’s trajectory and the governance of organizations like OpenAI. Tesla, OpenAI, and Microsoft were contacted for comments, but no immediate responses were available. The lawsuit is just one of several points of scrutiny for OpenAI, with investigations from the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission into whether OpenAI investors were misled.
