Elon Musk renews lawsuit against OpenAI

Tesla and Twitter owner Elon Musk on Monday filed a second lawsuit against the company that created the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT. In the lawsuit, Musk accuses OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and other individuals at the company of defrauding him regarding his investment in the company. Altman and others told Musk during his initial investment that the company would be structured as a nonprofit and the chatbot would be used for the good of mankind, the lawsuit argues. Instead, the company sought to turn a profit on the machine, Musk alleges.

This is his second lawsuit against the company? Musk originally sued OpenAI in February, alleging similar acts of wrongdoing. However, he dropped that lawsuit without prejudice in June. As a result, he retained the ability to renew the lawsuit again, if he desired.

What has OpenAI had to say about this? OpenAI issued a lengthy statement in March, less than a week after Musk’s initial lawsuit. In that statement, OpenAI included messages Musk had sent company officials showing he had recommended that the company pursue a for-profit model and had initially desired to oversee the company as CEO himself.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Sift from last week about how the European Union will soon begin policing artificial intelligence.