SAN FRANCISCO San Francisco: US government efficiency expert Elon Musk is now suing Microsoft, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and former board member of OpenAI and Microsoft in a lawsuit filed against OpenAI, run by Sam Altman, to drop its non-profit stance. New defendants have been named, including senior executive Dee Templeton. The amended complaint, filed in a California district court, also names new plaintiffs — Neuralink executive and former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis and Musk's AI company, xAI. The lawsuit reads, “OpenAI, which Musk co-founded as an independent charity committed to security and transparency – and which was nurtured in its early stages by Musk's money, advice, recruiting efforts and connections -At the direction of Altman, Brockman and Microsoft, rapidly becoming a fully profit-making subsidiary of Microsoft.” Musk's lawyers argued that OpenAI is “actively trying to eliminate competitors” like xAI “by promising investors not to fund them.” The lawsuit further alleges that “never before has a corporation transformed from tax-exempt charity to a $157 billion profit-making, market-crippling gorgon – and that's in just eight years”.
“This has never happened before, because doing so violates almost every principle of law governing economic activity. It involves lying to donors, lying to members, lying to the markets, lying to regulators, and lying to the public.” Have to lie,” it reads.
According to the amended complaint, Zilis, who will step down from OpenAI's board in 2023, is held as an “injured employee” under the California Corporations Code. Zilis has close ties to Musk, having worked as a project director at Tesla from 2017 to 2019 in addition to directing Neuralink research.
The lawsuit further alleges that efforts by Altman and his associates to cash in and squeeze others have their roots in OpenAI's partnership with Microsoft.
Musk alleges in the lawsuit, “Together, they established an opaque web of profit-making OpenAI affiliates whose only value was the intellectual property of OpenAI, Inc., the names and contributions of employees and Musk, the tax status of the charity, and its alleged Came from plundering relationships developed by exploiting the goodwill generated by philanthropic commitment.”
While the tech billionaire had expressed affinity towards Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, “the values of Microsoft and OpenAI were not aligned”.
While Musk was concerned that AI poses an existential threat to the human race and believed the technology should be decentralized and open, “Nadella and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates dismissed Musk's concerns as 'panic. 'And underestimated the future as very distant,” the lawsuit said.
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