X owner Elon Musk has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman, the company's CEO. According to Musk, OpenAI 'chose profit over its mission' by, among other things, not disclosing the internal details of GPT-4.
A court document shows that Musk filed the lawsuit on Thursday. This document states that Altman and Greg Brockman, the co-founders of OpenAI, originally approached Musk about creating an organization that is open source and non-profit. Musk is also a co-founder of OpenAI, but stepped down from the board in 2018.
Musk states that OpenAI's partnership with technology giant Microsoft “furthers the company's original mission to develop artificial intelligence for the good of the has endangered humanity and not for profit,” writes Reuters, among others. According to the X owner, the company is now solely focused on making a profit, which goes against Musk's contract with OpenAI. For example, GPT-4 is no longer open source. Therefore, he is suing the company and Altman for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and unfair business practices.
“OpenAI has transformed into a closed source de facto subsidiary of the largest technology company in the world: Microsoft. Under its new management not only develops an AGI, but also refines it to maximize profits for Microsoft, rather than deploying it for the benefit of humanity,” said Musk. Microsoft and OpenAI have not yet responded to the lawsuit.