Elon Musk seeks injunction to block OpenAIs plans to become for-profit Frankenstein: filing
Elon Musk has asked a federal judge to block Sam Altman’s OpenAI from completing plans to become a for-profit entity – arguing that it would cause “irreparable harm” to the public.In the filing late Friday in US District Court in San Francisco, Musk accused Altman of running afoul of antitrust law through the OpenAI’s collaboration with Microsoft, which has poured billions into the ChatGPT maker.“Plaintiffs and the public need a pause,” the filing says.
“OpenAI’s path from a non-profit to a for-profit behemoth is replete with per se anticompetitive practices, flagrant breaches of its charitable mission and rampant self-dealing.”“It cannot lumber about the marketplace as a Frankenstein, stitched together from whichever corporate forms serve the pecuniary interests of Microsoft and Altman at any given moment,” the filing added.The demand for a preliminary injunction marked an escalation in Musk’s long-running feud with Altman.The two tech titans once collaborated as co-founders of OpenAI but have since become bitter rivals with competing artificial intelligence projects.The injunction was filed on behalf of lawyers for Musk, his artificial intelligence startup xAi and former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis – an executive at the brain chip company Neuralink who is also the mother of three of Musk’s children.Musk’s legal team zeroed in on OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft as cause for concern.“Whatever leeway OpenAI might have been due under antitrust law as a purported charity it chose to forego when it subordinated itself to Microsoft for profit,” the filing said.
“OpenAI must therefore play by the same rules as everyone else.”OpenAI blasted Musk’s latest bid in a statement, calling it “utterly without merit” and accusing him of recycling arguments from previous legal challenges.Musk was initially one of OpenAI’s key investors, but ended his involvement after falling out with Altman.The X, Tesla and SpaceX boss f...