Elon Musk is re-engaging in legal action against OpenAI, the company he once co-founded. Recent court filings reveal that Musk has revived his lawsuit against the company and its CEO, Sam Altman, accusing them of prioritizing profit over their original mission to benefit humanity.
According to a Reuters report, Musk’s renewed lawsuit, filed on Monday in the Northern District of California, claims that he was misled by Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman into helping establish the company under the pretense of it being a nonprofit. Musk alleges that after investing millions into OpenAI, he was “betrayed” by Altman and his associates as the company, alongside Microsoft, created a complex network of for-profit affiliates and engaged in extensive self-dealing.
Musk’s complaint states that the actions of OpenAI and its leaders as having “Shakespearean proportions” of deceit. This lawsuit demonstrates the claims Musk made in a previous case against OpenAI in February, which he withdrew in June just before a judge was set to hear OpenAI’s motion to dismiss.
Musk has been vocal about his dissatisfaction with OpenAI’s shift away from its original motives. On social media, he criticized OpenAI for diverging from its path and suggested he would drop the lawsuit if the company changed its name to “ClosedAI.”
Musk departed from the company in 2018 and since then OpenAI has gained popularity in the AI sector, while Musk has focused on AI projects through Tesla and his venture, xAI.