Not a day seems to go by that Elon Musk isn’t embroiled in legal conflicts, but now the X/Twitter owner is back in a legal war with OpenAI, with a twist. Former OpenAI co-founder Musk will square off anew with his old partners, CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman, in federal court in a just-filed suit that might be one of the biggest tests of the wild growth of the OpenAI venture and the hundreds of billions on the table.
“The perfidy and deceit is of Shakespearean proportions,” declares the fraud and breach of contract filing this morning in the court docket in the Northern District of California. “Once OpenAI’s technology approached AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), Altman and his accomplices flipped the script,” the unspecified multi-damages complaint adds. “OpenAI’s focus shifted from its advertised charitable purpose – to benefit the public and protect humanity – to a vehicle for Altman and his partners’ self-enrichment. This is most clearly evidenced in OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft and the proliferation of an opaque web of for-profit OpenAI affiliates, recently valued at a whopping $100 billion.”
Musk, who invested millions in the 2015 formation of OpenAI to counter Google’s potential AI dominance, is seeking a jury trial. If you’re experiencing some déjà vu, this courtroom clash was expected. Earlier this year, Musk hit the Bay Area-based generative AI company with a California suit demanding it cease pursuing profit and “return to its mission to develop AGI for the benefit of humanity.”
In response, OpenAI claimed Musk supported a for-profit structure for OpenAI and dropped the project when his wishes were not followed. OpenAI’s lawyers added that Musk now wants the company’s success for himself. A June hearing was set on OpenAI and Altman’s motion to dismiss Musk’s case, which he withdrew just before the hearing with an option to refile.
Musk’s case will be waged by Marc Toberoff, a high-powered IP attorney known for taking on big studios on behalf of creators. Toberoff’s involvement adds an interesting twist, positioning Musk on the side of concerns about the existential dangers of AI in the hands of tech giants like Altman.
With Musk leaving OpenAI in 2018, some might wonder if he was simply outmaneuvered by other digital titans. That question will play out in a San Francisco court. This suit will be one to watch, as both sides boast unlimited capital to wage this legal battle.