Elon Musk Seeks Legal Action to Prevent OpenAI's For-Profit Shift
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New Delhi, Dec 1 (NationPress) Tech magnate Elon Musk has submitted a request for a preliminary injunction against OpenAI, overseen by Sam Altman, citing alleged anti-competitive conduct.
This injunction motion targets OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altman, President Greg Brockman, and former board members Reid Hoffman and Dee Templeton, along with Microsoft. The filings claim these individuals have engaged in various illicit activities and seek to put an end to them.
Reports indicate that accusations involve discouraging financial backers from supporting competitors of OpenAI, including Musk’s own AI venture, xAI, and improperly utilizing competitively sensitive information gained via OpenAI's ties with Microsoft.
Furthermore, the allegations assert the conversion of OpenAI’s governance framework to a for-profit model and the transfer of significant assets, including intellectual property, that belongs to OpenAI, Inc., its subsidiaries, or affiliates.
The motion states, “An injunction to preserve what is left of OpenAI’s nonprofit character, free from self-dealing, is the only appropriate remedy. If not, the OpenAI promised to Musk and the public will be long gone by the time the court reaches the merits.”
In response, OpenAI released a statement declaring, “Elon’s fourth attempt, which again recycles the same baseless complaints, continues to be utterly without merit.”
The AI organization previously described the lawsuit as “blusterous” and without foundation.
In Musk's injunction request, his legal team argued that “Maintaining OpenAI’s charitable status pending final resolution and halting further self-dealing transactions by Altman protect both the organisation’s founding mission and the public interest in proper administration of charities.”
In an amended lawsuit submitted to a California district court, Musk’s attorneys contended that OpenAI is “actively trying to eliminate competitors” like xAI by “extracting promises from investors not to fund them.”
The lawsuit further claimed that “never before has a corporation gone from tax-exempt charity to a $157 billion for-profit, market-paralysing gorgon — and in just eight years.”
