Why Is Elon Musk Bringing Legal Action Against OpenAI?
2024-03-05
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1Business leader Elon Musk is bringing a legal case against artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI and its chief Sam Altman.
2Musk is chief of carmaker Tesla and SpaceX and also leads the social media service X.
3He said OpenAI is betraying its founder's aims by seeking to increase profits rather than helping the world.
4Musk brought the legal action in San Francisco Superior Court.
5He said that, at first, he financially supported OpenAI, the maker of the AI tool ChatGPT.
6He said he had an agreement with Altman and Greg Brockman, the president.
7That agreement was to keep the artificial intelligence company as a nonprofit organization.
8Musk said the goal was to develop technology that would help the public.
9Under its founding agreement, OpenAI would also make its code open to the public instead of making it the company's private property, the lawsuit says.
10Musk claims in the lawsuit that OpenAI went against the agreement by having a close relationship with Microsoft.
11OpenAI did not comment on the lawsuit last week.
12Musk's lawsuit says OpenAI broke a contract, failed in its financial responsibility, and used unfair business methods.
13Musk also wants to prevent anyone, including Microsoft, from profiting from OpenAI's technology.
14Anupam Chander is a law professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
15He said Musk's claims are unlikely to succeed in court.
16However, he said that might not be the point for Musk, who is getting his personal story on the record.
17Chander said Musk claims he named OpenAI, employed an important scientist, and that he was the main financial supporter in its early years.
18He said, "In some sense, it's a lawsuit that tries to establish his own place in the history of generative AI."
19Musk was an early investor in OpenAI when it was founded in 2015.
20He was a leader in the company alongside Altman.
21In the lawsuit, he said he invested "tens of millions" of dollars in the nonprofit research laboratory.
22Musk left the company in early 2018 in a move that OpenAI said at the time would prevent conflicts of interest.
23Musk's Tesla car company was looking for people in AI to help develop self-driving car technology.
24Musk has since said he disagreed with the company's direction but continued to give money to the nonprofit.
25Later, OpenAI created a for-profit arm and began moving most of its workforce to that business.
26But it kept its nonprofit board of directors that oversaw the company.
27Microsoft made its first $1 billion investment in the company in 2019.
28The next year Microsoft signed an agreement with OpenAI giving Microsoft the rights to OpenAI's AI models.
29That agreement is supposed to end once OpenAI has created artificial general intelligence (AGI), the company has said.
30AGI is a sort of artificial intelligence that can perform just as well or even better than humans in different kinds of work.
31The nonprofit board of directors fired Altman as chief executive officer late last year.
32But Microsoft helped bring Altman back and pushed most of the old board of directors to leave.
33Musk's lawsuit claims that those changes caused the balance of power protecting the nonprofit aim of the company to "collapse overnight."
34One of Musk's claims is that the directors of the nonprofit have failed in their duty to support its nonprofit aim.
35Dana Brakman Reiser is a professor at Brooklyn Law School.
36She questions whether Musk has standing, or a connection to the case, that a court would uphold.
37She said it would be a problem if every person who cared about or gave money to a nonprofit group could bring a lawsuit against its leaders and officers.
38She said only other directors, or a government legal official could bring that sort of lawsuit.
39Musk now has his own AI company.
40But his legal case against Altman could inform the public about private talks and decision-making that took place at OpenAI.
41The company's lawyers will likely fight to keep some of those documents from being released.
42Investor Chamath Palihapitiya wrote on X, Musk's social media service: "The discovery will be epic."
43Discovery is the process by which lawyers request documents related to a legal case.
44Musk answered in his only public comments on the case so far: "Yes."
45I'm Caty Weaver. And I'm Bryan Lynn.
1Business leader Elon Musk is bringing a legal case against artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI and its chief Sam Altman. 2Musk is chief of carmaker Tesla and SpaceX and also leads the social media service X. He said OpenAI is betraying its founder's aims by seeking to increase profits rather than helping the world. 3Musk brought the legal action in San Francisco Superior Court. He said that, at first, he financially supported OpenAI, the maker of the AI tool ChatGPT. He said he had an agreement with Altman and Greg Brockman, the president. That agreement was to keep the artificial intelligence company as a nonprofit organization. Musk said the goal was to develop technology that would help the public. 4Under its founding agreement, OpenAI would also make its code open to the public instead of making it the company's private property, the lawsuit says. Musk claims in the lawsuit that OpenAI went against the agreement by having a close relationship with Microsoft. 5OpenAI did not comment on the lawsuit last week. 6Musk's lawsuit says OpenAI broke a contract, failed in its financial responsibility, and used unfair business methods. Musk also wants to prevent anyone, including Microsoft, from profiting from OpenAI's technology. 7Musk was early supporter of OpenAI 8Anupam Chander is a law professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He said Musk's claims are unlikely to succeed in court. However, he said that might not be the point for Musk, who is getting his personal story on the record. 9Chander said Musk claims he named OpenAI, employed an important scientist, and that he was the main financial supporter in its early years. He said, "In some sense, it's a lawsuit that tries to establish his own place in the history of generative AI." 10Musk was an early investor in OpenAI when it was founded in 2015. He was a leader in the company alongside Altman. In the lawsuit, he said he invested "tens of millions" of dollars in the nonprofit research laboratory. 11Musk left the company in early 2018 in a move that OpenAI said at the time would prevent conflicts of interest. Musk's Tesla car company was looking for people in AI to help develop self-driving car technology. 12Musk has since said he disagreed with the company's direction but continued to give money to the nonprofit. 13Later, OpenAI created a for-profit arm and began moving most of its workforce to that business. But it kept its nonprofit board of directors that oversaw the company. 14Microsoft investment 15Microsoft made its first $1 billion investment in the company in 2019. The next year Microsoft signed an agreement with OpenAI giving Microsoft the rights to OpenAI's AI models. That agreement is supposed to end once OpenAI has created artificial general intelligence (AGI), the company has said. 16AGI is a sort of artificial intelligence that can perform just as well or even better than humans in different kinds of work. 17The nonprofit board of directors fired Altman as chief executive officer late last year. But Microsoft helped bring Altman back and pushed most of the old board of directors to leave. 18Musk's lawsuit claims that those changes caused the balance of power protecting the nonprofit aim of the company to "collapse overnight." One of Musk's claims is that the directors of the nonprofit have failed in their duty to support its nonprofit aim. 19Dana Brakman Reiser is a professor at Brooklyn Law School. She questions whether Musk has standing, or a connection to the case, that a court would uphold. 20She said it would be a problem if every person who cared about or gave money to a nonprofit group could bring a lawsuit against its leaders and officers. She said only other directors, or a government legal official could bring that sort of lawsuit. 21Musk now has his own AI company. But his legal case against Altman could inform the public about private talks and decision-making that took place at OpenAI. The company's lawyers will likely fight to keep some of those documents from being released. 22Investor Chamath Palihapitiya wrote on X, Musk's social media service: "The discovery will be epic." Discovery is the process by which lawyers request documents related to a legal case. Musk answered in his only public comments on the case so far: "Yes." 23I'm Caty Weaver. And I'm Bryan Lynn. 24Kelvin Chan, Thalia Beaty, and Matt O'Brien reported this story for The Associated Press. Gregory Stachel adapted it for VOA Learning English. 25________________________________________________ 26Words in This Story 27betray - v. to ignore your principles or beliefs in order to achieve something or gain an advantage for yourself 28lawsuit - n. a claim or complaint against somebody that a person or an organization can make in court 29code - n. a system of computer programming instructions 30generate - v. to produce or create something 31epic - adj. very great or large and usually difficult or impressive