Elon Musk Reopens Lawsuit Against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman

Elon Musk has filed another lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, alleging that the company is now prioritizing profits and business interests over the public good. This move marks the latest effort by Musk to challenge the direction of the organization he co-founded in 2015.

Musk contends that after OpenAI’s technology succeeded in revolutionizing generative AI, Altman shifted the focus to monetizing the advancements. The lawsuit also seeks a judicial declaration to invalidate OpenAI’s license agreement with Microsoft, arguing that the use of its AI models falls outside the scope of the company’s partnership with Microsoft.

The licensing deal involved Microsoft investing billions of dollars in OpenAI in exchange for the rights to utilize its large language models for computing services.

Neither OpenAI nor Musk responded to Reuters’ requests for comments in time.

In June, Musk withdrew an earlier lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman that accused them of straying from the startup’s original mission of developing AI for the betterment of humanity. Musk’s lawyers had asked a California state court to dismiss the February lawsuit without providing a specific reason.

The February lawsuit claimed that OpenAI’s founders had initially agreed to develop AI in a manner that would “benefit humanity.” Musk’s renewed legal action underscores his ongoing concerns about the current trajectory of OpenAI since its inception.