A 7-year-old rivalry between tech leaders Elon Musk and Sam Altman over who should lead OpenAI and prevent an artificial intelligence “dictatorship” is now heading to a federal judge as Musk seeks to halt the ongoing transition of maker of ChatGPT towards a for-profit business. business.
Musk, an early investor and board member of OpenAI, sued the artificial intelligence company earlier this year alleging that it had betrayed its founding purposes as a nonprofit research laboratory benefiting the public good rather than seeking profits.
Musk has since escalated the dispute, adding new claims and seeking a court order that would end the conflict. OpenAI projects to more fully transform into a for-profit business.
The world’s richest man, whose companies include Tesla, SpaceX and social media platform X, launched his own rival AI company, xAI, last year. Musk says he faces unfair competition from OpenAI and its close business partner Microsoft, which has provided the enormous computing resources needed to build AI systems such as ChatGPT.
“OpenAI and Microsoft together exploiting Musk’s donations so they can create a for-profit monopoly, now specifically targeting xAI, is simply too much,” says Musk’s filing which alleges the companies are violating the terms of Musk’s core contributions. Musk at the charity.
OpenAI filed a response Friday opposing Musk’s requested order, saying it would “debilitate OpenAI’s business and mission” to benefit Musk and his own AI company and that it relies on “far-fetched” legal allegations. A hearing is scheduled for January before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California.
At the heart of the dispute is an internal power struggle within the young startup in 2017, which led to Altman becoming CEO of OpenAI.
Musk also sought to become CEO and outlined a plan in an email where he would “unequivocally have initial control of the company” but said it would be temporary. He became frustrated after two other OpenAI co-founders said he would hold too much power as a major shareholder and chief executive if the startup succeeded in its goal of achieving better-than-human AI, known under the name of general artificial intelligenceor AGI. Musk has concerns expressed for a long time about how advanced forms of AI could threaten humanity.
“The current structure provides you with a path to absolute unilateral control over AGI,” said a 2017 email to Musk from co-founders Ilya Sutskever and Greg Brockman. “You have stated that you do not want to control the AGI. Final AGI, but during this negotiation you have shown us that absolute control is extremely important to you.