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Elon Musk sues OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman. What triggered this move?
Musk had co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but had stepped down from its board in 2018
Tesla chief executive Elon Musk on Friday sued ChatGPT maker OpenAI and its chief executive Sam Altman, accusing the duo of ‘abandoning’ the company's original mission to develop Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the benefit of humanity, not profit.
According to a Reuters report, the lawsuit filed by Musk claimed that Altman and Open AI co-founder Greg Brockman had approached the X CEOto make an open source, non-profit company.
Musk's lawyers said that OpenAI's focus on making money breached the contract. They added in the lawsuit that the AI firm kept the design of GPT4 a ‘complete secret’, the Reuters report added.
If you are not aware, Musk had co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but had stepped down from its board in 2018. The chatbot became the fastest-growing software application in the world within six months of its launch in November 2022.
ALSO READ: Elon Musk's ‘civilization at stake’ warning against Big Tech AI giants
2023: Sam Altman fired from OpenAI, then reinstated
On November 18, OpenAI had fired Altman, saying it no longer had the confidence in his ability to lead the firm. In a statement, the Microsoft-backed company's board had said in a statement that his departure ‘follows a deliberative review process," which had concluded that Altman ’was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities."
But the ouster did not last long as OpenAI rehired Altman on November 23. In an interview to The Verge, Altman said he was ‘hurt and angry’ but decided to accept the position again.
“Obviously, I really loved the company and had poured my life force into this for the last four and a half years full time, but really longer than that with most of my time. And we’re making such great progress on the mission that I care so much about, the mission of safe and beneficial AGI,” he had said.
