Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently dropped a lawsuit he had filed against OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and though Musky didn’t offer an explanation for dropping the lawsuit, it coincides with some juicy leaked emails between him and OpenAI. Didn’t Elon help co-found OpenAI? Yes he did, but now OpenAI is making lots of money for itself and Musk must feel salty about that profit going to someone other than himself.
Musk filed the lawsuit against OpenAI for a breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and unfair business practices. He was an original founder of OpenAI when it was a nonprofit, and in 2018 Musk allegedly attempted and failed to take control of the company. After Musk quit, OpenAI transitioned to a for-profit company. Once OpenAI launched its much talked about AI chatbot ChatGPT, Musk started his own AI company called xAI. Futurism reports,
[Musk] became one of OpenAI’s biggest critics, arguing publicly that the company had abandoned its mission to safely develop humanity-saving artificial general intelligence (AGI) in favor of cashing in on its tech. And finally, in March, Musk put his grievances into a decidedly sanctimonious lawsuit, suing OpenAI for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and unfair business practices.
OpenAI “is not just developing but is actually refining an AGI,” read the lawsuit, “to maximize profits for Microsoft, rather than for the benefit of humanity.”
Just days after Musk filed his lawsuit against the company, OpenAI published several juicy emails that were sent by Musk when he was still working at the company. These emails show unequivocal proof that Musk himself was discussing a for-profit structure for OpenAI when he still worked there, or exactly what Musk was suing OpenAI for doing.
There’s no proof that Musk dropping the lawsuit is linked to the leaked hypocritical emails, but it’s an awfully ironic coincidence, don’t you think? Besides, Elon has plenty of other stuff to worry about, like his car company’s Cybertrucks that keep making headlines for their remarkably poor quality and design.