Musk sues OpenAI founder for ‘stark betrayal’ of company’s values

ELON MUSK is suing the co-founder of the ChatGPT developer, OpenAI, alleging he compromised the company’s original pursuit to prioritise developing safe artificial intelligence over profits.

The Tesla billionaire accused Sam Altman of “stark betrayal” after the pair co-founded OpenAI in 2015, with Mr Musk agreeing to bankroll the group with the intention of developing AI that would benefit humanity.

The business was set up as a nonprofit and shared details of its AI breakthroughs with other scientists.

However, in a lawsuit filed in California, Mr Musk claimed Mr Altman, who is chief executive of OpenAI, has since plotted to “radically depart from their mission”, raising billions of dollars from Microsoft and making OpenAI’s research a secret. In the lawsuit, Mr Musk’s lawyers wrote that OpenAI had collected “tens of millions of dollars” to develop AI for the good of humanity, but had since become a “closed, forprofit partner of the world’s largest corporation, thereby personally enriching the defendants”.

The filing accuses Mr Altman and OpenAI of breach of contract and demands a ruling that would block

Microsoft from using the start-up’s most powerful AI tools. The lawsuit claims Mr Altman and Mr Musk set up OpenAI over a shared concern of the existential risks posed by powerful AI and in an attempt to challenge Google, which had just acquired the AI lab DeepMind.

The group set out to develop so-called artificial general intelligence technology in a safe way, and not for profit. Mr Musk left OpenAI in 2018 amid a falling out with its leadership. Last year Microsoft became the biggest investor in OpenAI, pumping as much as $10bn (£7.9bn) into its technology.

In November, Mr Altman was ousted by OpenAI’s board, before returning as chief executive just days later amid pressure from staff and Microsoft.

The lawsuit, which was first reported by Courthouse News, claims that, since then, OpenAI has been turned into a “de facto subsidiary” of Microsoft that is seeking to “maximise profits”.

Last year, Mr Musk launched his own AI venture, called xAI, which has launched an alternative to ChatGPT, called Grok, which he has claimed will be “politically neutral”. When Mr Altman was sacked in November, Mr Musk urged the board explain its reasoning. The reason has not been made public. OpenAI was contacted for comment.