In a legal response to Elon Musk’s lawsuit, OpenAI has refuted claims regarding violation of a Founding Agreement stating that no such agreement was ever made with Musk when the company was founded. According to OpenAI’s filing shared by The Verge, OpenAI Inc has asked the Court to designate the case as “complex” requiring “exceptional judicial management” as Musk’s allegations are “complicated, highly technical, and span nearly a decade”.
On February 29, Tesla CEO Musk had filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, alleging that Altman’s moves—purported to be driven by commercial interests–have led to the violation of the company’s Founding Agreement for developing artificial general intelligence or AGI for the “benefit of humanity” and not for individual interests. Musk, in his lawsuit, has sought an order requiring OpenAI to adhere to the Founding Agreement of making its research and technology available to the public. Read more about Musk’s lawsuit here.
OpenAI’s stance on closed-source AGI:
One of the core arguments of Musk’s complaint was that by licensing GPT-4, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has departed from OpenAI’s “original mission and historical practice” of open-sourcing its technology. On March 5, in a statement OpenAI explained that the founding members had mutually agreed on a for-profit and closed-source model for acquiring artificial general intelligence. Disclosing specific email conversations, OpenAI argued that a closed-source AI was much safer as it would prevent someone with resources from building a copy and misusing it.
Key arguments from OpenAI’s filing
‘There is no Founding Agreement’
According to Musk’s lawsuit, a Founding Agreement was signed between Sam Altman, Musk, and Greg Brockman, co-founder of OpenAI, in 2015. OpenAI has dismissed Musk’s claim as fictional and has denied entering into any agreement with Musk.
“The Founding Agreement is instead a fiction Musk has conjured to lay unearned claim to the fruits of an enterprise he initially supported, then abandoned, then watched succeed without him. The documents Musk cites as purportedly memorializing a binding contract with him— OpenAI’s certificate of incorporation and a few emails—on their face show no promises to Musk,” OpenAI said in its filing to a Californian Court.
Calling Musk’s claims as “convoluted” and “incoherent”, OpenAI also pointed out that any actual agreement, which Musk believed to exist, was missing from the pleading.
Musk seeks to advance his own commercial interests
Countering Musk’s fundamental claim that OpenAI has abandoned the Founding Agreement for using artificial intelligence technology for public benefit, OpenAI has alleged that Musk, in fact, supported a for-profit structure for the company. The filing also claimed that Musk intended to seek complete control of OpenAI, and “dropped the project when his wishes were not followed”.
OpenAI has also highlighted that Musk’s plea nowhere alleges that his early donations to the company were conditioned on defendants following a specific business plan. Further, in view of OpenAI’s recent technological advancements, Musk is seeking the success for himself, the filing argued.
Defendants Samuel Altman and Gregory Brockman have alleged that Musk’s request for “a judicial determination that GPT-4 constitutes Artificial General Intelligence” compels OpenAI to disclose its technology that could benefit Musk, whose “own for-profit AI concern has not met with success in the marketplace”. In November 2023, Elon Musk-owned xAI announced the launch of Grok, an AI chatbot that would compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard.
“Were discovery to commence, Musk would use this suit to seek access to OpenAI’s proprietary records and technology and to press for broad merits discovery. Those demands would need to be carefully policed,” OpenAI argued.
Also Read:
- OpenAI Responds To Musk, Alleges He Wanted “Total Control” Of The Company
- Elon Musk Sues OpenAI For Violating Founding Agreement Of Developing Artificial General Intelligence For Public Benefit
- Elon Musk’s XAI Launches AI Chatbot Grok That Has Access To Real-Time Info From X
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