Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk on Tuesday moved to drop his lawsuit, accusing ChatGPT maker OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman of abandoning the startup’s original mission of developing artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity and not for making profit. Musk’s Attorneys asked the California state court to drop the lawsuit, initially filed in February, without giving a reason for the move, as stated in a filing with the San Francisco Superior Court.
A Superior Court judge in the state was ready to hear OpenAI’s bid to dismiss the lawsuit at a hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
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“If the OpenAI board is prepared to preserve the charity’s mission and stipulate to take the “for sale” sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid; if not, the charity must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets.”
According to the filing, Musk’s “serious offer” was to further the charity’s mission. OpenAI and an attorney for Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment; Musk dismissed his case without prejudice, which means he could refile it later.
The rift between Musk and OpenAI
The lawsuit marked the apex of Musk’s smothering resentment of OpenAI, a startup he co-founded that has since become the face of generative AI through billions of dollars in funding from Microsoft (MSFT.O). Musk founded xAI, an artificial intelligence startup, in July last year. In May, it raised $6 billion in series B funding and reached a post-money valuation of $24 billion.
Altman and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman approached Musk to create an open-source, nonprofit company. Still, the lawsuit states that the startup, established in 2015, is now focused on making money.
The lawsuit emphasized that OpenAI “set the founding agreement aflame” last year when it released its most potent language model, GPT-4. Musk asked a judge to force OpenAI to make its research and technology available to the public and prevent the startup from using its assets, including GPT-4, for the financial benefit of Microsoft and others.
In a court filing, OpenAI argued that the lawsuit was based on incoherent claims, describing it as Musk’s contrived attempt to advance his AI interests. OpenAI’s attorneys said that, after seeing the remarkable technological advances OpenAI has achieved, Musk now wants its success.
In an April filing, Musk said OpenAI was trying to “advance arguments based on disputed facts” beyond the lawsuit’s scope.
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What’s next?
Even though Elon Musk has dismissed his lawsuit, his conditions left OpenAI with a choice whether to return to the startup’s original mission of developing artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity and not for profit or face financial consequences. Given OpenAI’s existing partnerships and corporate ties, whether the company will align with Musk’s demands or continue on its current trajectory remains uncertain.
As AI innovation speeds up, Musk’s actions stress the ongoing ethical debate over whether artificial intelligence should prioritize public good or corporate profit.