OpenAI disputes Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s lawsuit allegations about breach of founding agreement

OpenAI is disputing a legal claim made by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Musk, as a co-founder of OpenAI, had filed a lawsuit against the AI research organization, alleging it had violated a “founding agreement” by releasing an AI language model, GPT-4, without proper scientific details. According to Musk, this action infringed upon the founding understanding that OpenAI would operate as a nonprofit and not withhold information for business advantages.

However, OpenAI has rebutted Musk’s charges in a memo delivered to its employees and through a document filed in California’s superior court for San Francisco County. It denied the existence of any such agreement with Musk, asserting that he invented the agreement. OpenAI disputes Musk’s assertion that a 2015 certificate of incorporation with the Delaware secretary of state confirmed the supposed founding agreement.

In a response to Musk’s lawsuit, OpenAI described his allegations as groundless. Still, in a blog post, it also requested that the case be recognized as complex, considering the involvement of AI and its long historical context.

OpenAI also contradicted Musk’s comments on the venture becoming a for-profit entity in 2017. While Musk declared he had advised the OpenAI co-founders to continue as a nonprofit or establish something new independently, the company’s legal filing suggests Musk had approved the transition to a for-profit structure.

Musk now runs his own AI lab, X.AI, which recently launched a chatbot named Grok via X, Musk’s purchased version of Twitter. However, OpenAI issued a pointed comment in its legal filing, stating that Musk, impressed by their technological advancements, desired the company’s success for himself and had brought the lawsuit with the aim of favoring a competitor to OpenAI.