Elon Musk, the co-founder of OpenAI, has once again taken legal action against the artificial intelligence firm and its co-founders, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.
This comes only a few weeks after he withdrew a similar lawsuit against the company responsible for ChatGPT. Musk's latest legal move, filed in California, portrays his conflict with Altman and others as a classic struggle between altruism and greed.
According to The New York Post, Musk's legal representatives argue that OpenAI and its leaders "intentionally courted and deceived" him, leading him to invest over $44 million in the startup during its formative years. The lawsuit alleges that Altman and his allies promised to develop advanced AI for the benefit of humanity, only to abandon this mission in favor of self-enrichment and the interests of key investor Microsoft.
"After Musk lent his name to the venture, invested significant time, tens of millions of dollars in seed capital, and recruited top AI scientists for OpenAI Inc., Musk and the non-profits namesake objective were betrayed by Altman and his accomplices," the lawsuit states, adding, "The perfidy and deceit are of Shakespearean proportions."
The lawsuit accuses OpenAI, Altman, and Brockman of fraud and breach of contract. Musk is seeking various forms of relief, including damages, disgorgement of profits related to his investment, and a court ruling that would nullify OpenAIs licensing agreement with Microsoft a company that has pledged approximately $13 billion to the firm. Musk's legal team has also requested a jury trial.
OpenAI and Microsoft have been contacted for comments on the lawsuit. In response to Musk's initial lawsuit, OpenAI dismissed his allegations in a blog post and announced plans to move for dismissal of the claims. "As we discussed a for-profit structure in order to further the mission, Elon wanted us to merge with Tesla or he wanted full control," the blog post read. "Elon left OpenAI, saying there needed to be a relevant competitor to Google/DeepMind and that he was going to do it himself.
Musk had previously filed a similar lawsuit against OpenAI and its leaders in March of last year, but he withdrew it shortly before a judge was due to decide on its progression. Meanwhile, Musk has launched his own firm, xAI, a direct competitor to OpenAI, which raised $6 billion at a post-money valuation of $24 billion in May.
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