Home Elon Musk files new lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI, alleging he was ‘manipulated’

Elon Musk files new lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI, alleging he was ‘manipulated’

tl;dr

  • Elon Musk has filed another lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, alleging manipulation into co-founding the company.
  • Musk claims OpenAI "flipped the narrative" and profited significantly from generative AI advancements.
  • The lawsuit also implicates Microsoft, seeking to void its license to use OpenAI's models amid rising competition.

Elon Musk has once more filed a lawsuit against OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, claiming he was manipulated into co-founding OpenAI with him.

Court filings published on Monday documented the latest development in the ongoing spat between the influential AI figureheads.

The basis of the latest court action is that the ChatGPT maker “flipped the narrative and proceeded to cash in,” as the company soared on the proliferation and progress gained through generative AI.

The latest installment in the saga between the former associates comes after Musk dropped a lawsuit against OpenAI in June, which alleged the company had reneged on its mission to create artificial intelligence for human benefit.   

That was confirmed just a day after the Tesla billionaire rebuked OpenAI’s collaboration with Apple when he threatened to prohibit iPhones and other Apple devices at his companies.

Strained relations between Microsoft and OpenAI

Musk’s latest efforts to thwart OpenAI resemble the lawsuit which was eventually dismissed, but this time it is alleged Microsoft was involved.

The details published on Monday outlined how Musk claims he was “courted and deceived” by Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman on the basis the firm was a nonprofit, then he was “betrayed by Altman and his accomplices” as the model was changed to a profit-generating one.

Microsoft has been a strategic partner to OpenAI, having contributed an estimated $13 billion to the firm, but a tangled web is forming with the two entities now said to be competing in AI and Search.

The lawsuit filed by Musk and his team points to the wider disconnect between the tech players and the high stakes involved as it seeks a judicial determination to void the license for Microsoft to use OpenAI’s models

It is this agreement and the use of the LLMs to boost Microsoft’s services that has resulted in billions of dollars flowing in the opposite direction. 

Whatever the outcome of this latest action, it is not likely to be the last we hear of acrimony between the X boss and the company he co-founded.

Image credit: Via Ideogram

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Graeme Hanna
Tech Journalist

Graeme Hanna is a full-time, freelance writer with significant experience in online news as well as content writing. Since January 2021, he has contributed as a football and news writer for several mainstream UK titles including The Glasgow Times, Rangers Review, Manchester Evening News, MyLondon, Give Me Sport, and the Belfast News Letter. Graeme has worked across several briefs including news and feature writing in addition to other significant work experience in professional services. Now a contributing news writer at ReadWrite.com, he is involved with pitching relevant content for publication as well as writing engaging tech news stories.

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