After noticing that OpenAI is moving away from its non-profit goal, Elon Musk chose to sue the firm. In the case filing, the billionaire as well as the owner of Tesla and X notes that OpenAI has become a “closed-source de facto subsidiary” of Microsoft. The partnership between OpenAI and Microsoft is far-reaching, and many might ask what is Musk’s business in its profit-making side.
Well, if you aren’t already aware, Elon Musk is the co-founder of the popular firm OpenAI. He points out that the goal of this AI firm in its early stages was the development of AI for the sole benefit of mankind. This is to say that the firm was not founded based on making a profit, but all of this is now changing, hence prompting Elon Musk to sue the firm.
The lawsuit on which this report stands points out that a major driving force for the new profit orientation of OpenAI is its partnership with Microsoft. Yes, firms like Microsoft rely on OpenAI to power their AI models, and they invest heavily in this AI firm to ensure that they get the best results on their products. Microsoft already has a $13 billion investment in OpenAI, making it a major stakeholder within the firm.
For this reason, OpenAI might be altering its non-profit goal in a bid to better earn its investors some money. Musk’s lawsuit claims that OpenAI is making some refinements to its artificial general intelligence (AGI). The claims state that the main aim of these refinements is for the sole purpose of maximizing profit.
While this lawsuit might be confusing to some, others assume that Elon Musk is making this move to favour his own AI firm. Yes, Elon Musk has his own AI firm known as xAI which is responsible for the rolling out of Grok AI on X. While this is just an assumption of some, it’s good to note that the partnership between OpenAI and Microsoft is currently under investigation.