Openai asked federal court on Wednesday to ban Elon Musk from unfairly attacking through a famous lawsuit he filed last year.
In a filing in federal court in San Francisco, Open said Musk “created his project to defeat the Open.” The company demanded that the tech billionaire stop “even conduct” against Open Alliance and has urged the court to hold Musk liable for the damages he caused to the company.
The filing was another indication of denunciation between Musk, the founder of Openry, and the company over the direction of rapidly evolving technology. In August, Musk sued Openy and its founders, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, who alleged that they placed the commercial interests of the company and AI ahead of public interest in technology.
In a statement, Openai said: “Elon continues to use bad faith tactics to slow Openai down for his personal gain. These efforts are anti-competitive and oppose our mission.
Musk and his attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(The New York Times sued Openai and its partner Microsoft, accusing them of copyright infringement over news content related to AI Systems. Openai and Microsoft denied these claims.)
Musk helped create Openai as a nonprofit organization in late 2015, along with Altman and others. However, the partnership thwarted the evolution of AI after the fight to control the company, and Musk left the organization. Since then, Openai has released ChatGpt and has become a leading AI player with hundreds of millions of users. Altman raised billions of dollars for Openai to build AI technology.
Last year, Openai began working on a plan to shift its management of its company from a nonprofit to Openai investors. Soon afterwards, Musk sued Openman and Brockman, alleging that they were violating the company's incorporation agreement by raising commercial profits over public interest.
This year, Musk and his consortium of investors offered to buy assets from the nonprofit that manages Openai for more than $97 billion. Openai's board of directors declined the bid.
In a submission Wednesday, Openai described Musk's bid for the company as “fake” and said it misrepresented the company's efforts to change the structure of the company.
“Musk is pitching the false claims that Openai is planning to “convert” from a nonprofit organization to a for-profit company,” Filing said.
Openai says it plans to rebuild it as a public benefit corporation or PBC, a for-profit corporation designed to create public and social benefits.
In another move Wednesday, a coalition of nonprofits, workers and other charity leaders filed a petition with California Attorney General Rob Bonta to investigate Openai's attempts to convert the company into a public benefit company.
