Elon Musk’s lawsuit in opposition to OpenAI accusing the corporate of abandoning its nonprofit mission was withdrawn in July, solely to be revived in August. Now, in an amended grievance, the swimsuit names new defendants together with Microsoft, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and former OpenAI board member and Microsoft VP Dee Templeton.
The amended submitting additionally provides new plaintiffs: Neuralink exec and ex-OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis and Musk’s AI firm, xAI.
Musk was one of many unique founders of OpenAI, which was meant to analysis and develop AI for the good thing about humanity, and was established as a non-profit initially. He left the corporate in 2018 after disagreements about its path.
Within the grievance, attorneys for Musk argue that OpenAI is now “actively attempting to eradicate opponents” equivalent to xAI by “extracting guarantees from buyers to not fund them.” It’s additionally allegedly unfairly benefitting from Microsoft’s infrastructure and experience in what Musk’s counsel describes within the submitting as a “de facto” merger.
“xAI has been harmed by, with out limitation … an lack of ability to license OpenAI know-how given Microsoft’s unique license … an lack of ability to acquire compute from Microsoft on phrases anyplace close to as favorable as OpenAI receives … and the unique trade between OpenAI and Microsoft of competitively delicate info.”
Hoffman’s place on the boards of each Microsoft and OpenAI whereas additionally a accomplice at Greylock, the funding agency, gave Hoffman a privileged — and illicit — view into the businesses’ dealings, the grievance alleges. (Hoffman stepped down from OpenAI’s board in 2023.) Greylock invested in Inflection, Musk’s counsel notes, the AI startup that Microsoft acqui-hired earlier this yr — and which might moderately be thought of an OpenAI competitor, in line with the grievance.
As for Templeton, whom Microsoft briefly appointed as a non-voting board observer at OpenAI, the amended submitting alleges that she was able to facilitate agreements between Microsoft and OpenAI that will violate antitrust guidelines.
“The aim of the prohibition on interlocking directorates is to forestall sharing of competitively delicate info in violation of antitrust legal guidelines and/or offering a discussion board for the coordination of different anticompetitive exercise,” the grievance reads. “Permitting Templeton and Hoffman to function members of OpenAI’s …. board undermined this objective. “
Per the amended grievance, Zilis, who stepped down from OpenAI’s board in 2023 after serving as a member for roughly 4 years, has standing as an “injured worker” beneath California Firms Code. Zilis repeatedly raised considerations over OpenAI’s dealmaking internally that fell on deaf ears — considerations considerably just like Musk’s, in line with the grievance.
Zilis has shut ties to Musk, having labored as a mission director at Tesla from 2017 to 2019 along with directing Neuralink analysis. (Neuralink is Musk’s brain-computer interface enterprise.) She’s additionally the mom of three of Musk’s youngsters, Techno Mechanicus and twins Strider and Azure.
The 107-page amended grievance contains the bizarre element that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman proposed that OpenAI promote its personal cryptocurrency in September 2017, earlier than it finally determined to transition to a capped-profit construction. Musk supposedly shot down the crypto sale thought.
The thrust of the lawsuit stays the identical on the plaintiffs’ aspect: that OpenAI profited from Musk’s early involvement within the firm but reneged on its nonprofit pledge to make the fruits of its AI analysis obtainable to all. “No quantity of intelligent drafting nor surfeit of artistic dealmaking can obscure what is going on right here,” reads the grievance. “OpenAI, Inc., co-founded by Musk as an impartial charity dedicated to security and transparency … [is] quick changing into a full for-profit subsidiary of Microsoft.”
OpenAI has sought to dismiss Musk’s lawsuit, calling it “blusterous” and baseless.
