Mr. Musk is suing OpenAI, which he co-founded, and its CEO, Sam Altman, for allegedly breaking a contract by not following through on its promise to methodically develop artificial intelligence and make the technology publicly accessible.
According to a court document, the business that created the revolutionary generative AI chatbotChatGPT has “been transformed into a closed-source de facto subsidiary of the largest technology company, Microsoft.”
The legal action is the most recent in a string of challenges to Mr. Altman, who was removed from the OpenAI board of directors and briefly employed by Microsoft, the company’s largest shareholder, before being reinstated.
Board members and the founders of the massive AI corporation have been at odds over the company’s growing commercial ambitions since it was first established as a not-for-profit.
According to Mr. Musk’s lawsuit, OpenAI and its top officials have set that agreement “ablaze” and are “perverting” the company’s objective by forming a strong relationship with Microsoft.
