A 7-year-old rivalry between tech leaders Elon Musk and Sam Altman over who should run OpenAI and prevent an artificial intelligence "dictatorship" is now heading to a federal judge as Musk seeks to halt the ChatGPT maker's ongoing shift into a for-profit company.
Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits.
Musk has since escalated the dispute, adding new claims and asking for a court order that would stop to convert itself into a for-profit business more fully.
The world's richest man, whose companies include Tesla, SpaceX and social media platform X, last year started his own rival AI company, xAI. Musk says it faces unfair competition from OpenAI and its close business partner Microsoft, which has supplied the huge computing resources needed to build AI systems such as ChatGPT.
鈥淥penAI and Microsoft together exploiting Musk鈥檚 donations so they can build a for-profit monopoly, one now specifically targeting xAI, is just too much,鈥� says Musk's filing that alleges the companies are violating the terms of Musk鈥檚 foundational contributions to the charity.
OpenAI filed a response Friday opposing Musk鈥檚 requested order, saying it would 鈥渄ebilitate OpenAI鈥檚 business鈥� and mission to the advantage of Musk and his own AI company and is based on 鈥渇ar-fetched鈥� legal claims. A hearing is set for January before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California.
At the heart of the dispute is a 2017 internal power struggle at the fledgling startup that led to Altman becoming OpenAI's CEO.
Musk also sought to be CEO and in an email outlined a plan where he would 鈥渦nequivocally have initial control of the company鈥� but said that would be temporary. He grew 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 to achieve better-than-human AI known as , or AGI. Musk has about how advanced forms of AI could threaten humanity.
鈥淭he current structure provides you with a path where you end up with unilateral absolute control over the AGI," said a 2017 email to Musk from co-founders Ilya Sutskever and Greg Brockman. 鈥淵ou stated that you don't want to control the final AGI, but during this negotiation, you've shown to us that absolute control is extremely important to you.鈥�
In the same email, titled 鈥淗onest Thoughts,鈥� Sutskever and Brockman also voiced concerns about Altman's desire to be CEO and whether he was motivated by 鈥減olitical goals.鈥� Altman eventually succeeded in becoming CEO, and has remained so except for a period last year when he was fired days later after the board that ousted him was replaced.
OpenAI published the messages Friday in a blog post meant to show its side of the story, particularly Musk's early support for the idea of making OpenAI a for-profit business so it could raise money for the hardware and computer power that AI needs.
It was Musk, through his wealth manager Jared Birchall, who first registered 鈥淥pen Artificial Intelligence Technologies, Inc.,鈥� a public benefit corporation, in September 2017. Then came the 鈥淗onest Thoughts鈥� email that Musk described as the 鈥渇inal straw.鈥�
鈥淓ither go do something on your own or continue with OpenAI as a nonprofit,鈥� Musk wrote back. OpenAI said Musk later proposed merging the startup into Tesla before resigning as the co-chair of OpenAI's board in early 2018.
Musk didn't respond to emailed requests for comment sent to his companies Friday.
Asked about his frayed relationship with Musk at a New York Times conference last week, Altman said he felt 鈥渢remendously sad鈥� but also characterized Musk鈥檚 legal fight as one about business competition.
鈥淗e鈥檚 a competitor and we鈥檙e doing well,鈥� Altman said. He also said at the conference that he is about the Tesla CEO鈥檚 influence with President-elect Donald Trump. OpenAI said Friday that Altman plans to make a $1 million personal donation to Trump鈥檚 inauguration fund, joining a number of tech companies and executives who are working to improve their relationships with the incoming administration.
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The Associated Press and OpenAI have a allowing OpenAI access to part of the AP鈥檚 text archives.
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This story has been updated to correct the name of the company registered in 2017. It was Open Artificial Intelligence Technologies, Inc., not Open Artificial Technologies Technologies, Inc.
Matt O'brien, The Associated Press
