Elon Musk filed a new lawsuit Monday against OpenAI and its founders, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, two months after withdrawing a similar suit. The complaint alleges that Altman and Brockman strayed from OpenAI's founding principles by prioritizing profits over public interest.
Musk claims that Altman and the other defendants "deceived" him into cofounding OpenAI in 2015, promising a nonprofit focused on safety and openness for humanity's benefit. The suit argues that these objectives were abandoned, mainly through OpenAI's partnership with Microsoft. "The perfidy and deceit are of Shakespearean proportions," the lawsuit states. Musk is seeking a jury trial.
Musk's lawyer, Marc Toberoff, highlighted differences between the new and original lawsuits, stating, "This lawsuit holds Defendants accountable for their intentional misrepresentations to Musk and the public and seeks the disgorgement of their ill-gotten gains."
OpenAI referred to a blog post from March in response to the original lawsuit, affirming its commitment to ensuring artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. An OpenAI spokesperson reiterated, "Elon's prior emails continue to speak for themselves."
Musk's original lawsuit filed in March was met with OpenAI releasing emails showing Musk's agreement with plans to raise more funds and move away from open-source releases. The lawsuit was withdrawn in June without explanation. Musk has also previously defended his election-related misinformation on X as a parody.