Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has initiated legal action against OpenAI, the entity responsible for creating ChatGPT, and its CEO Sam Altman, alleging breach of the foundational agreements established during the company’s inception in 2015. Musk accuses the organization of deviating from its original purpose of advancing humanity’s well-being by prioritizing profit generation instead. OpenAI, which enjoys backing from Microsoft, purportedly diverged from the principles agreed upon, according to Musk’s legal representatives. Despite co-founding OpenAI, Musk relinquished his position on the board in 2018.
In an interesting twist, the head of Tesla and SpaceX has proposed to withdraw his lawsuit should OpenAI consent to rebrand itself as “ClosedAI”. Musk conveyed this stipulation through a post on X, stating, “Change your name to ClosedAI and I will drop the lawsuit.” He further criticized the company in subsequent posts for not adhering to its original ethos, urging OpenAI to “stop living a lie.”
Additionally, Musk creatively expressed his standpoint by modifying an image to depict Sam Altman with an altered guest ID card, replacing OpenAI’s designation with “ClosedAI” beneath its logo.
The controversy escalated when OpenAI publicized a series of private email exchanges with Musk on March 6, responding to the allegations made in the lawsuit. The company expressed its regret over the situation with Musk, acknowledging his initial inspiration for their mission but lamenting the subsequent legal confrontation following their progress towards fulfilling OpenAI’s objectives without his involvement.