Elon Musk is suing OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, arguing it has breached the principles he agreed to when he helped found it in 2015.
The lawsuit – which has also been filed against OpenAI boss Sam Altman – says the firm has departed from its original non-profit, open source mission.
It says instead of trying to “benefit humanity” – as it was set up to do – it is focusing on “maximising profits” for major investor Microsoft.
The firm was created with the intention of building what’s known as artificial general intelligence (AGI) – AI that can perform any task a human being is capable of.
It was also set up as a not-for-profit company, meaning it would not aim to make money.
The lawsuit, which has been filed in San Francisco, states it was under these conditions, that Mr Musk agreed to found OpenAI, along with Mr Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman.
He left three years later.
“This case is filed to compel OpenAI to adhere to the Founding Agreement and return to its mission to develop AGI for the benefit of humanity, not to personally benefit the individual Defendants and the largest technology company in the world,” the lawsuit says.
The filing comes after the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that US regulators had begun to probe the ChatGPT creator over whether investors had been misled, following boardroom drama at OpenAI in November 2023.
The board at the time accused Mr Altman of not being “consistently candid in his communications”, and said as a result they had “lost confidence” in his leadership.
