Elon Musk Sues OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman Over Alleged Breach of Contract

Tech mogul Elon Musk has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, among others, alleging breach of contractual agreements stemming from Musk's involvement in founding ChatGPT in 2015, Reuters reported on Thursday.

According to the lawsuit filed in San Francisco, Musk accuses Altman and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman of deviating from the original mission of creating a nonprofit, open-source organization focused on developing artificial intelligence (AI) technology for the betterment of humanity. Musk's legal team contends that OpenAI's pursuit of profits contradicts the initial agreement.

Neither OpenAI nor Microsoft, which has backed the company, nor Elon Musk himself, have responded immediately to Reuters' request for comment regarding the lawsuit.

Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but stepped down from its board in 2018. Currently serving as the head of electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, Musk made headlines in October 2022 with his acquisition of the social media platform Twitter for billion, later rebranding it as "X".

ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, achieved unprecedented success within six months of its launch in November 2022, emerging as the world's fastest-growing software application. Its popularity spurred competitors, including tech giants like Microsoft and Alphabet (Google's parent company), as well as numerous startups, to develop their own generative AI offerings.

Since its introduction, ChatGPT has been widely adopted by companies for various tasks, ranging from document summarization to computer code generation, catalyzing a race among major tech firms to develop similar AI technologies.