Elon Musk has revised his lawsuit against OpenAI and is now also targeting Microsoft. In addition to breach of contract and fraud, he accuses the companies of violating antitrust law. These would try to monopolize the market for generative AI.
Die amended statement of claim was filed on Thursday, reported The Verge. The first lawsuit from March of this year stated that OpenAI had violated the founding agreements due to the pursuit of profit. In addition, the original mission of the developers of a general superintelligence for the benefit of humanity would no longer be the focus. That lawsuit was withdrawn in June.
He is particularly interested in the cooperation with Microsoft. The group has invested around $14 billion in OpenAI since 2019 and is considered a premium partner. According to Musk’s lawyer, it is a “De-Facto-Fusion“ of companies that promote anti-competitive practices.
According to the lawsuit, OpenAI and Microsoft are actively trying to eliminate competitors. For example, they would prevent their investors from financing competitors such as Musk’s AI start-up xAI.
Next attempt
OpenAI said in a statement to Reutersthis lawsuit is even more baseless than Elon Musk’s first attempt. A month ago, the AI start-up described Musk’s first lawsuit as a campaign and PR measure. Microsoft had no comment.
Musk is part of the founding team of OpenAI and supported the company financially in the early days. In 2018 he left the company amid a dispute. Back then it was all about the direction of the start-up. As emails published by OpenAI suggest, everyone involved agreed at the time that the AI start-up needed more money to be able to keep up with Google in particular.
The separation did not occur because the company was changing from a non-profit structure to a business form that is more attractive to investors. Rather, it was Musk’s desire for power; he wanted the CEO position and had proposed incorporating OpenAI into Tesla. Because this project failed, he left the company, according to OpenAI.
Musk himself founded the AI start-up xAI, which develops the generative chatbot Grok. It raised $6 billion in a funding round in March.
The lawsuit is becoming more explosive because Musk has a close connection to the next US President Donald Trump. Among other things, he will head the new Department of Government Effiency and could also have an influence if new laws in the area of AI are on the agenda, it is said The Verge.
