““In reality, however, OpenAI,Inc. has been transformed into a closed-source de facto subsidiary of the largest technology companyin the world: Microsoft.””
That was billionaire and Tesla
TSLA,
CEO Elon Musk in a lawsuit filed in San Francisco on Thursday against OpenAI and its top executives, accusing them of abandoning the original purpose of developing artificial general intelligence, or AGI, to instead enrich themselves and investor Microsoft
MSFT,
In the suit, Musk bring claims of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and unfair competition against OpenAI, Chief Executive Sam Altman and President Gregory Brockman.
Musk said Altman approached him in 2015 with a proposal to create a non-profit AI lab to catch up with Alphabet-owned Google
GOOGL,
in the race for AGI, but with an opposite approach. Musk left OpenAI in 2018.
He said the two executives, together with OpenAI President Gregory Brockman, made a “founding agreement” that the new lab would develop AGI “for the benefit of humanity, not for a for-profit company seeking to maximize shareholder profits.”
The technology would also be open-source, Musk asserted in the suit. OpenAI released its powerful GPT-4 language model in March 2023.
Read: Here’s what a neutral chatbot thinks of Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI
But Musk charged that “GPT-4’s internal design was kept and remains a complete secret except to OpenAI—and, on information and belief, Microsoft.”
Altman was dismissed, and then brought back, as head of the company that produces ChatGPT last year.
Upon his return, OpenAI announced a new board, led by Bret Taylor, former co-CEO of Salesforce
CRM,
named as chairman, with former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers also on board. New board members are expected to announced in March, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing sources.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman gestures during a session of the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos on January 18, 2024.
Fabrice COFFRINI/Agence France-Presse/Getty Image
Musk rounded criticism at that new board as well, in his lawsuit.
“Under its new Board, it is not just developing but is actually refining an AGI to maximize profits for Microsoft, rather than for the benefit of humanity. Its technology, including GPT-4, is closed-source primarily to serve the proprietary commercial interests of Microsoft,” he said.
In the suit, Musk is demanding that OpenAI return to its original agreement.
MarketWatch has reached out to OpenAI and Microsoft for comment.
