Elon Musk reignites legal battle against Sam Altman's OpenAI

Elon Musk has reignited a legal battle against OpenAI, the company he co-founded in 2015, and its CEO Sam Altman. The lawsuit, filed on Monday, accuses OpenAI of prioritising profits and commercial interests over the public good.

Musk alleges that once OpenAI's technology began to significantly impact generative artificial intelligence, CEO Sam Altman changed the company's direction to focus on financial gain. This is not the first time Musk has challenged OpenAI's trajectory. He previously filed a lawsuit in February, claiming that OpenAI had strayed from its original mission to develop AI for the benefit of humanity. That lawsuit was withdrawn in June without explanation.

The current lawsuit seeks to invalidate OpenAI's licensing agreement with Microsoft. Musk contends that the licence, which allows Microsoft to use OpenAI's language models, is beyond the scope of their partnership. This partnership has seen Microsoft invest billions of dollars into OpenAI in exchange for integrating its AI models into Microsoft's computing services.

The February lawsuit accused OpenAI's founders of deviating from their original goal of creating AI to benefit humanity. However, Musk's legal team asked a California state court to dismiss that suit in June without providing a reason.

This latest lawsuit marks Musk's ongoing efforts to challenge the direction of OpenAI, reflecting his concerns about the ethical and commercial implications of AI development.