The lawsuit, filed late on February 29 in the California Superior Court in San Francisco, is the culmination of Musk’s long-simmering opposition to the startup he co-founded. OpenAI has become the face of generative AI, thanks in part to billions of dollars in funding from Microsoft. Musk is launching his own artificial intelligence startup, xAI, in July 2023.

Musk's lawsuit alleges breach of contract, saying Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman initially approached him to create a nonprofit open-source company, but it has now become focused on making money.

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Elon Musk was one of the founders of OpenAI in 2015. (Photo: Reuters)

Musk said the three original OpenAI founders agreed to research artificial general intelligence (AGI) but in a way that “benefits humanity,” according to the lawsuit. OpenAI would also work in opposition to Google, which Musk believes is developing AGI for profit and would pose serious risks.

However, OpenAI "burned the founders agreement" in 2023 when it released its most powerful language model, GPT-4, which is essentially a Microsoft product, the lawsuit alleges. As a result, Musk wants a court order forcing OpenAI to make its research and technology available to the public and preventing the startup from using its assets, including GPT-4, for the financial benefit of Microsoft or any individual.

Top OpenAI executives have refuted some of the claims Musk made in his lawsuit, the blog Axios reported on March 1.

Musk also sought a court ruling that GPT-4 and a new, more advanced technology — Q* — would be considered AGI and therefore fall outside Microsoft's license to OpenAI.

Musk tried to wrest control of OpenAI from Altman and other founders in late 2017, aiming to transform it into a commercial entity in partnership with Tesla, leveraging the automaker's supercomputers, a Reuters source revealed.

But Altman and others objected, and Musk resigned, saying he wanted to focus on Tesla's AI projects. He announced his departure from OpenAI in February 2018 during a meeting where Musk called on OpenAI to speed up its development, which was deemed reckless.

Since then, Musk has repeatedly called for regulation of AI.

Musk's breach of contract claim, based in part on emails between Musk and Altman, may not hold up in court, some legal experts say. While contracts can be formed through a series of emails, the lawsuit cites one email that looks like a proposal and a "one-sided discussion," said Brian Quinn, a law professor at Boston University School of Law.

Musk's xAI

Musk has hired engineers from some of America's top tech companies to work on xAI, with ambitions to challenge Google and Microsoft. The startup has begun rolling out its ChatGPT competitor, Grok, to social network X's Premium+ subscribers in December 2023.

According to xAI's website, the startup is a separate company from Musk's other businesses but will work closely with X and Tesla.

Musk, who has called AI a “double-edged sword,” is among a group of experts and tech executives who have called for a six-month moratorium on the development of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4, citing the high risks to humanity and society. Since ChatGPT’s launch, companies have adopted it for a range of tasks, from document summarization to programming, sparking a race among Big Tech to launch services based on generative AI.

(According to Reuters)