Elon Musk revives lawsuit against OpenAI, accuses co-founders of ‘Shakespearean’ betrayal

Elon Musk filed a new lawsuit against OpenAI and co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman on Monday — just weeks after he dropped a similar lawsuit against the firm behind ChatGPT.

The case filed in California by Musk — who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but later stepped down from its board amid disagreements over its direction — describes his dispute with Altman and others as a “textbook tale of altruism against greed”.

Musk’s lawyers allege that OpenAI and its leaders “intentionally tricked and tricked” him into funding the startup to the tune of more than $44 million in its early years.

The lawsuit alleges that Altman and his allies said they would develop advanced AI for the benefit of humanity — only to abandon that mission in order to enrich themselves and major investor Microsoft.

“After Musk lent his name to the venture, invested significant time, tens of millions of dollars in seed capital, and recruited top AI scientists for OpenAI Inc., Musk and the nonprofit’s named target were betrayed by Altman and his associates. his. the lawsuit says.

“Betrayal and deceit are of Shakespearean proportions.”

The suit accuses OpenAI, Altman and Brockman of fraud and breach of contract. Musk is seeking various forms of relief, including damages, disgorgement of profits related to his investment and a court order blocking OpenAI’s licensing deal with Microsoft — which has netted the firm about $13 billion.

The Tesla and X boss’ legal team also demanded a jury trial.

The Post has reached out to OpenAI and Microsoft for comment on the lawsuit.

In an earlier blog post responding to Musk’s initial lawsuit, OpenAI rejected his claims and said it would move to dismiss the claims.

“As we discussed a for-profit structure to further the mission, Elon wanted us to merge with Tesla or wanted full control,” the blog post said. “Elon quit OpenAI, saying there needed to be a proper competitor for Google/DeepMind and that he would do it himself.”

Musk filed a similar lawsuit against OpenAI and its executives last March, but withdrew the action a few months later just before a judge ruled on whether it should be allowed to proceed.

The billionaire has launched his own firm xAI – a direct competitor to OpenAI that raised $6 billion in a $24 billion post-money valuation in May.