Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI, during which he accused the corporate of abandoning its charitable mission, was withdrawn in July, simply to be revived in August. Well, in a single amended grievanceThe lawsuit names recent defendants, including Microsoft, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and former OpenAI board member and Microsoft vp Dee Templeton.
The amended filing also adds recent plaintiffs: Neuralink CEO and former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis and Musk's AI company xAI.
Musk was one in every of the unique founders of OpenAI, which was intended to research and develop AI for the advantage of humanity and was originally founded as a non-profit organization. He left the corporate in 2018 after disagreements over direction.
In the lawsuit, Musk's lawyers argue that OpenAI is now “actively attempting to eliminate competitors” like xAI by “extracting guarantees from investors.” to not finance them.” It also allegedly unfairly advantages from Microsoft's infrastructure and expertise, in what Musk's lawyer calls a “de facto merger” within the lawsuit.
“xAI has been harmed without limitation by… the lack to license the OpenAI technology given Microsoft's exclusive license… the lack to acquire computing power from Microsoft on terms anywhere near as favorable as OpenAI… and the exclusive exchange of competitively relevant ones “Information between OpenAI and Microsoft,” says the lawsuit filed late Thursday in federal court in Oakland, California.
Hoffman's position on the boards of Microsoft and OpenAI while also being a partner on the investment firm Greylock gave Hoffman a privileged – and illegal – view of the businesses' operations, the lawsuit says. (Hoffman stepped down from OpenAI's board in 2023.) Greylock invested in Inflection, Musk's lawyer notes, the AI startup that Microsoft acquired earlier this 12 months — and which, in response to the grievance, could reasonably be viewed as an OpenAI competitor.
As for Templeton, whom Microsoft briefly appointed as a non-voting board observer at OpenAI, the amended filing alleges that she was in a position to facilitate agreements between Microsoft and OpenAI that violated antitrust rules.
“The purpose of the ban on directorate collaboration is to forestall the sharing of competitively sensitive information in violation of the antitrust laws and/or to offer a forum for the coordination of other anticompetitive activities,” the grievance states. “Permit Templeton and Hoffman to function members of OpenAI…. The board has undermined that purpose. “
In addition to Microsoft, Hoffman and Templeton, Musk's lawsuit also names California Attorney General Rob Bonta as a defendant. Bloomberg reported This month, OpenAI is in discussions with Bonta's office in regards to the technique of changing its corporate structure.
According to the amended grievance, Zilis, who retired from OpenAI's board in 2023 after serving for roughly 4 years, is taken into account an “injured worker” under the California Corporations Code. Zilis repeatedly raised concerns about OpenAI's internal operations that fell on deaf ears – concerns substantially much like Musk's, the grievance says.
Zilis is closely related to Musk and worked as a project manager at Tesla from 2017 to 2019 and as head of Neuralink research. (Neuralink is Musk's brain-computer interface company.) She can also be the mother of three of Musk's children, Techno Mechanicus and twins Strider and Azure.
The 107-page amended grievance includes the bizarre detail that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman suggested OpenAI sell its own cryptocurrency in September 2017 before ultimately deciding to transition to a capped-profit structure. Musk has reportedly shot down the concept of selling crypto.
The core of the lawsuit stays the identical for the plaintiffs: OpenAI benefited from Musk's early involvement in the corporate, but didn’t follow his charitable promise to make the fruits of his AI research available to everyone. “No amount of clever wording or excess of creative business dealings can disguise what is going on here,” the grievance states. “OpenAI, Inc., co-founded by Musk as an independent charity committed to security and transparency, is quickly becoming a full-fledged for-profit subsidiary of Microsoft.”
OpenAI has sought to dismiss Musk's lawsuit, calling it “violent” and baseless.
