① The main points of Musk's dissatisfaction were: he invested a lot in OpenAI but was “scammed” by Altman; OpenAI became Microsoft's profit division; ② Musk filed a claim against OpenAI and asked OpenAI to resume open source and account for OpenAI's donations; ③ Regarding OpenAI's previous battle for power and the mysterious Q project, Musk also mentioned in this lawsuit.
“Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily”, March 2 (Editor Song Ziqiao) OpenAI seems to be prepared to be tough on Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman. Bloomberg's latest report said that according to an internal memorandum sent by OpenAI to the company's employees, the company “categorically disagrees” (categorically disagrees) with Musk's lawsuit against the company.
In the memo, OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon refuted Musk's claim that OpenAI is a “factual subsidiary” of Microsoft, and “both” said Musk's statement “probably due to his regret that he didn't stay with OpenAI today.”
Kwon stated that the company's mission “is to ensure that AGI benefits all” and that OpenAI is independent and directly competes with Microsoft. He also said he would like to update employees on the “government agency inquiry”, which refers to an investigation launched by the US Securities and Exchange Commission after Altman was briefly removed by the company's board of directors at the end of last year.
In another memo, Altman called Musk his hero and said he missed the person he knew who competed with others by developing better technology.
▌Musk sued OpenAI for the “Five Deadly Sins”
On Thursday evening EST (March 1, Beijing time), “Silicon Valley Ironman” Elon Musk (Elon Musk) sued OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altman (Sam Altman), OpenAI's co-founder and president Greg Brockman (Greg Brockman) and others in the San Francisco High Court, accusing them of violating an agreement reached at the time of OpenAI's founding, that is, to develop technology for the benefit of humans rather than profit.
In the 46-page lawsuit, Musk denounced five deadly crimes, including Altman and others for violating the OpenAI founding agreement, and also revealed some unknown insider information about OpenAI——--
1. Breachof contract (BreachhofContract). In this section, Musk focused on accusing OpenAI of being attached to Microsoft, including licensing GPT-4 exclusively to Microsoft, not disclosing information on GPT-4's architecture, hardware, training methods, etc. to the public, setting up a “paywall” for using GPT-4, and allowing Microsoft to take a seat on the OpenAI board of directors. Musk said in the lawsuit: “OpenAI has become a de facto subsidiary of Microsoft, the world's largest technology company. Under the new board of directors, OpenAI isn't just developing general artificial intelligence (AGI); it's actually improving it to maximize Microsoft's profits rather than benefit humanity.”
2. Promise prohibited objections/Promissory Estoppel (Promissory Estoppel). Musk believes that Altman promised him that OpenAI would develop AGi as a non-profit organization. He donated tens of millions of dollars because of his trust in Altman, which took a lot of time and resources, including Musk's early capital investment in the company, suggestions for research directions, and efforts to recruit top scientists and engineers, but the results were completely contrary to Altman's promises to him.
3. Breachof Fiduciary Duty (Breachof Fiduciary Duty). The defendant had fiduciary responsibility for the funds donated by the plaintiff, but violated the origination agreement. Musk accused OpenAI of using the funds for commercial purposes, in violation of his agreement and promises to the public.
4. Unfair Business Practices (Unfair Business Practices). Musk alleges that OpenAI falsely advertised during fundraising, claiming that all funds would be used for the basic purposes described in the founding agreement, but engaged in unfair competition and other unfair commercial practices. Had he known this, he would never donate to OpenAI.
5. Accounting (Accounting). The defendant received tens of millions of dollars in donations from the plaintiff and others in the name of a non-profit organization, but used them for a profit company.
Despite listing the “Five Deadly Sins,” Musk's discontent is mainly due to two major points: he invested a lot in OpenAI but was “scammed” by Altman; OpenAI became Microsoft's profit division.
Based on this, Musk filed claims against OpenAI, including breach of contract, breach of fiduciary responsibility, and unfair commercial practices, and requested OpenAI to resume open source and account for OpenAI's use of donations.
Also, regarding OpenAI's previous battle for power and the mysterious Q project, Musk also mentioned in this lawsuit:
Musk claims that most of OpenAI's previous board members were forced to resign on November 22, 2023, and their replacements were personally selected by Altman and Microsoft; Microsoft played a key role in Altman's return to OpenAI. A few days after Altman's dismissal, OpenAI's board faced pressure from lawyers and major shareholders (including Microsoft) to reinstate their positions. It was revealed that Altaman's key OpenAI board member Helen Toner (Helen Toner) was even targeted. A lawyer representing OpenAI told Toner that if OpenAI disbanded due to Altman's dismissal, she and the board could face charges of breaching fiduciary obligations.
Musk asked the judiciary to determine whether Q* and OpenAI's other next-generation big language models currently being developed belong to AGi. The media previously reported that OpenAI is secretly developing a large model called Q* that is stronger than the current GPT-4. Altman was removed from the board of directors in November last year due to safety and other issues.
▌Musk's “Grudge” with OpenAI
OpenAI was born “with its own aura,” and both Musk and Altman are “veterans.”
In December 2015, Sam Altman (Samaltman), partner and president of the well-known American VC agency Ycombinator, and Linkedin founder ReidHoffman (ReidHoffman) founded OpenAI in San Francisco. Tesla CEO Elon Musk (Elon Musk), PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel (Peter Thiel), and Stripe's CTO GregBrockman (GregBrockman) jointly pledged $1 billion.
At the time, OpenAI positioned itself as a non-profit organization and promised to share development code for free. The goal was very clear — curbing Google's monopoly position in the field of artificial intelligence.
However, after Musk left the board of directors and Altman joined the company, the company's goals changed.
In 2018, Musk resigned from the board of directors on the grounds that “there may be a conflict of interest in the future” with his role as Tesla CEO, but he still donated tens of millions of dollars to OpenAI.
According to the lawsuit, Musk donated more than $44 million to OpenAI between 2016 and September 2020, especially in the first few years, when Musk was OpenAI's largest donor.
In 2019, Altman stepped down as president of YC Group (yCombinator's parent company) to fully invest in OpenAI and serve as CEO. OpenAI also announced a transition from a “non-profit” nature to a “capped for profit (capped for profit)”, established a subsidiary OpenAI LP, and “embraced the golden thigh” — introducing Microsoft's $1 billion investment.
Is it true that you can't eat grapes called grape acid? Or is Musk worried that AI is threatening humanity with a big cause? The reason doesn't matter anymore.
An hour after Musk's lawsuit was accepted, he posted a tweet, @了OpenAI和其近期投资的人形机器人公司Figure, and said “feel free to come.”
Musk has a tough attitude, and OpenAI is relentless. The Silicon Valley drama will continue. The trial process of the above lawsuit is scheduled to hold a case management meeting on July 31, 2024. Case number is CGC24612746.
How will OpenAI fight back? We will continue to follow up.