Elon Musk Files New Federal Lawsuit Against OpenAI

Elon Musk has filed a new federal lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, accusing the latter of straying from Musk’s founding mission to benefit humanity to pursue profits. The 83-page complaint, lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, renews and expands upon allegations Musk first raised in a state court lawsuit earlier this year.

The former OpenAI Co-founder claims Altman and other company leaders have “intentionally courted and deceived” him, exploiting his concerns about the existential risks posed by advanced AI.

The complaint alleges that once OpenAI’s technology approached transformative artificial general intelligence (AGI), “Altman flipped the narrative and proceeded to cash in.” The lawsuit declares that “the perfidy and deceit are of Shakespearean proportions.”

Mentioning OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft, Musk argues that the partnership violates the company’s founding principles by establishing “an opaque web of for-profit OpenAI affiliates engaged in rampant self-dealing.

The lawsuit further remarks that this resulted in seizing OpenAI Inc.’s board while systematically depleting the non-profit’s valuable technology and personnel.