Elon Musk, the multi-billionaire owner of Tesla and X, is suing artificial intelligence company OpenAI, accusing the firm of prioritising profit over developing AI for the public good.
Mr Musk is bringing the suit against OpenAI, which he co-founded, and its chief executive, Sam Altman, for breaching a contract by reneging on its pledge to develop AI carefully and make the tech widely available.
The company behind the ground-breaking generative AI chatbot, ChatGPT, has “been transformed into a closed-source de facto subsidiary of the largest technology company, Microsoft”, a court filing said.
Read more:
How the chaos at ChatGPT maker OpenAI has unfolded
Snapchat flagged in nearly half of child abuse imagery crimes in past year
The court action is the latest in a series of challenges to Mr Altman who was ousted from his position at OpenAI by the company board and briefly went to work at Microsoft, OpenAI’s biggest shareholder, before being returned to his post.
The AI giant was originally founded as a not-for-profit company but has grown to have commercial interests, which has caused tension between board members and founders.
By embracing a close relationship with Microsoft, OpenAI and its top executives have set that pact “aflame” and are “perverting” the company’s mission, Mr Musk alleges in the lawsuit.
“Under its new board, it is not just developing but is actually refining an AGI [artificial general intelligence] to maximize profits for Microsoft, rather than for the benefit of humanity”, the filing said.
A key part of OpenAI’s mission to benefit humanity, the court filing said, a key part of which was to make the company software open source and share it, but this has not happened.
Instead the company operates on a for profit model.
Mr Musk, has his own AI company, called xAI.
OpenAI and Microsoft have been contacted for comment.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow @SkyNews on X or subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.
This story originally appeared on Skynews
