Elon Musk Amends Lawsuit Against OpenAI, Adding Microsoft as Defendant

Elon Musk has intensified his existing dispute with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, by filing an updated lawsuit against the company, which now includes Microsoft as a defendant. On Thursday, Mr. Musk, who co-founded the artificial intelligence (AI) firm, alleged in an amended legal complaint that both OpenAI and the technology giant are engaged in monopolistic practices. This action follows earlier legal complaints that accused OpenAI of violating the foundational principles Mr. Musk agreed upon when he assisted in establishing the company in 2015. Microsoft chose not to provide a statement regarding the lawsuit. A spokesperson for OpenAI characterized Mr. Musk’s updated complaint as “baseless.” The spokesperson informed the BBC, “Elon’s third attempt in less than a year to reframe his claims is even more baseless and overreaching than the previous ones.” They further stated that prior emails from Mr. Musk, which OpenAI publicly released in response to his initial lawsuit, “speak for themselves.” The legal document submitted on Thursday modifies a lawsuit initially filed in a California court in August and now also names LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman as a defendant. The BBC has sought a comment from Mr. Hoffman. The lawsuit alleges that OpenAI has transitioned from a “tax-exempt charity to a $157bn (£124bn) for-profit, market-paralysing gorgon.” Furthermore, it asserts that Microsoft and OpenAI leveraged a monopoly to remove rivals within the AI industry, such as Mr. Musk’s company, xAI. The complaint states, “As a result of their unlawful actions, defendants have been unjustly enriched to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars in value, while Mr Musk has been conned along with the public.” OpenAI was established in 2015 with the objective of developing artificial general intelligence (AGI), which is commonly understood as AI capable of executing any task a human can perform. In 2019, the company introduced a new “capped profit” operational model to facilitate fundraising. Soon after, Microsoft made an initial investment of $1 billion into OpenAI, which expanded into a multi-year, multi-billion dollar partnership by 2023. The legal action additionally accuses CEO Sam Altman, who is identified as a defendant in the lawsuit, of “rampant self-dealing.” Mr. Musk’s original legal filing in March contended that the arrangement had converted OpenAI into “a closed-source de facto subsidiary” of the PC giant. OpenAI refuted his allegations, asserting that Mr. Musk had previously supported a for-profit structure. In a blog post on its website, the company stated that the billionaire had, at one stage, sought “absolute control” of the company. Mr. Musk’s reasserted claims coincide with the week that US President-elect Donald Trump selected him for a government cost-cutting position, as part of his initiative to “dismantle” bureaucracy upon his return to the White House next year.