Elon Musk Targets Microsoft in Revised Lawsuit Against OpenAI.
He still finds time in his busy schedule to address requests.
Elon Musk has modified his lawsuit for fraud, breach of contract, and extortion against OpenAI to include antitrust claims against Microsoft, accusing both companies of attempting to "monopolize the generative artificial intelligence market." In the new lawsuit filed on Thursday, Microsoft appears as a new defendant, along with Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, and Dee Templeton, vice president of Microsoft and former board member of OpenAI.
Since 2019, Microsoft has invested $14 billion in OpenAI and holds exclusive rights to commercially license the AI startup's technology, as well as a 49 percent stake in its for-profit subsidiary. Musk's lawyers argue that former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman engaged in "rampant self-dealing" practices to create a "de facto merger" between the two companies in order to promote anticompetitive practices.
The lawsuit claims that OpenAI and Microsoft are "actively trying to eliminate competitors" through the sharing of "sensitive competitive information" and deterring their investors from funding rival companies, such as xAI, Musk's AI firm. Currently, both companies are competing for funding in the growing AI market, with OpenAI securing $6.6 billion in October to develop more powerful AI models. Meanwhile, xAI raised $6 billion in its funding round in March to accelerate the development of "future technologies."
xAI has also been included in the lawsuit as a new plaintiff, along with Shivon Zilis, a former board member of OpenAI, who is an executive at Musk's company Neuralink and the mother of three of his twelve children. Efforts have been made to obtain comments from OpenAI and Microsoft regarding the changes made to the lawsuit.
Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 along with Altman and Greg Brockman, who are also defendants in this legal action, leaving the company in 2018. Previously, Musk filed a lawsuit in March (which he withdrew in June without explanation) accusing OpenAI of abandoning its foundational agreement to develop AI that benefits humanity, claiming that its partnership with Microsoft had turned OpenAI into a "de facto closed-source subsidiary" focused on maximizing profits. In August, Musk reopened the lawsuit against OpenAI with similar allegations. OpenAI has repeatedly sought to dismiss the complaint, calling it a "public relations strategy" and an "increasingly noisy campaign to harass OpenAI for competitive advantage."
Since the filing of the lawsuits, it has been reported that Musk has been promised an advisory role in the administration of elected President Donald Trump, which could provide him with greater capacity to influence policies related to artificial intelligence.
