Elon Musk revives lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI, filing shows

By Zaheer Kachwala

(Reuters) - Billionaire Elon Musk revived a lawsuit against ChatGPT maker OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman on Monday, saying that the firm put profits and commercial interests ahead of the public good.

The lawsuit marks Musk's latest attempt to oppose the startup he co-founded in 2015 and left three years later. Since his exit, OpenAI has gone on to become the face of generative AI, while Musk started another rival startup, xAI, last year that was valued at $24 billion in May.

The latest lawsuit seeks a judicial determination that OpenAI's license to Microsoft to use its AI models is null and void. Musk also contends that the language models are outside the scope of OpenAI's partnership with Microsoft.

Filed in the Court for the Northern District of California, the suit is similar to the one Musk filed in February before withdrawing it in June without any explanation just a day before a judge was set to hear OpenAI's bid to dismiss the lawsuit.

A favorable decision could help Musk unwind what has been a lucrative partnership between OpenAI and Microsoft, which has invested $13 billion in the startup in exchange for AI technology that it is now deploying across its services.

The tie-up has made Microsoft a frontrunner in the fast-moving race with Google for generative AI dominance, but it is also under the scrutiny of regulators.

The latest lawsuit alleges once OpenAI's technology started to transform genAI, Altman "flipped the narrative and proceeded to cash in."

"OpenAI and Microsoft stand to make a fortune selling this technology to the public, which would not be possible if the non-profit made its research and technology freely available, as Altman had repeatedly promised Musk," the lawsuit said.

While OpenAI's parent is a nonprofit, Microsoft has invested the $13 billion in a for-profit subsidiary of the firm that was created in 2019 to help fund AI research and development.

Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while OpenAI referred Reuters to its original response to Musk back in March.

OpenAI in March rebutted Musk's claims by unveiling emails that showed the Tesla chief supported plans to create a for-profit-entity and a merger that would make it Tesla's "cash cow."

After OpenAI's release of ChatGPT at the end of 2022 took the world by storm, Altman became one of the most influential people in the world, culminating in his ousting and return to the company in November.

(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid and Shinjini Ganguli)