Elon Musk sues ChatGPT creator OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman for breach of contract

Elon Musk has just filed an important lawsuit against one of the world's biggest companies right now -- OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT -- and its CEO, Sam Altman.

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The SpaceX and Tesla boss is suing OpenAI and Sam Altman for breaching the non-profit's contract, promissory estoppel, and fiduciary duty by turning from its dedication to bringing an open-source artificial intelligence under the protection of Microsoft, which is a heavy investor in OpenAI. Microsoft owns a large 49% stake in OpenAI, investing $10 billion in January 2023 for a total of $14 billion invested in the ChatGPT maker.

The complaint filed by Musk explains: "OpenAI, Inc. has been transformed into a closed-source de facto subsidiary of the largest technology company in the world: Microsoft. Under its new board, it is not just developing but is actually refining an AGI to maximize profits for Microsoft, rather than for the benefit of humanity."

"And it is closed for propriety commercial reasons: Microsoft stands to make a fortune selling GPT-4 to the public, which would not be possible if OpenAI-as it is required to do-makes the technology freely available to the public."

• Read more: New York Times sues OpenAI and Microsoft for using millions of copyrighted articles to train AI
• Read more: OpenAI calls out The New York Times, saying its 'not telling the full story'
• Read more: Man sues OpenAI over ChatGPT falsely telling a journalist he's embezzling non-profit money

The lawsuit by Musk seeks that the court grants an injunction to stop OpenAI, its President Gregory Brockman, and its CEO Sam Altman -- as well as Microsoft -- from profiting from the AI technology created by the non-profit organization.

Microsoft also reserves the rights to 75% of any profits OpenAI makes until it makes its initial $13 billion investment back, which after the Windows and Xbox giant will take in 49% of OpenAI's future profits until that reaches a threshold of $92 billion, after which Microsoft's shares will revert to OpenAI's non-profit foundation.