Elon Musk is suing Microsoft-backed OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, among others, alleging that they disregarded the company's founding goal of creating artificial intelligence “for the benefit of humanity broadly.”
According to Musk's attorneys, Altman and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman approached the tech billionaire in 2015 and agreed to establish a nonprofit lab to develop artificial general intelligence for the “benefit of humanity”.
Four years after declaring that AI is potentially more dangerous than nuclear weapons, Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015, resigned from the company's board in 2018.
The website of OpenAI, Inc. continues to claim that its goal is to ensure that AGI benefits everyone on Earth. However, according to the lawsuit filing, OpenAI Inc. has been transformed into a closed-source de facto subsidiary of Microsoft, the world's largest technology company.
In the lawsuit, Musk's attorneys claimed OpenAI's focus on Microsoft's profit maximization violated that statement.
According to the filing, “it is not just developing but is actually refining an AGI to maximize profits for Microsoft, rather than for the benefit of humanity, “according to the filing.
According to Musk's attorneys, the lawsuit was brought to “compel OpenAI to adhere to the Founding Agreement and return to its mission to develop AGI for the benefit of humanity, not personally benefit the Defendants and the largest technology company in the world.”
Microsoft recently announced a new partnership with French start-up Mistral AI, even though it is currently facing EU antitrust regulator scrutiny for its reported $13 billion investment in OpenAI.
The U.S. tech giant announced on Monday that it would be investing in the business in order to unlock new commercial opportunities and expand to global markets. The company is regarded as Europe's answer to OpenAI.
