OpenAI has rebutted claims of a “founding agreement” Elon Musk made in his lawsuit against the AI startup.
The firm has issued statements and shared email exchanges dating back to its formation to counter the claims.
Musk’s lawsuit hinges on a 2015 agreement involving him, OpenAI co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.
This legal dispute emerges amid OpenAI’s endeavors to monetize its ChatGPT chatbot and its underlying AI models.
The company also faces copyright infringement claims from the New York Times and authors.
Musk accused the artificial intelligence company of breaching a contract from its inception.
He said bosses agreed OpenAI would operate as a nonprofit entity dedicated to humanity’s benefit without privatizing information for commercial gains.
“There is no Founding Agreement”
Musk argued that OpenAI violated this agreement by not disclosing scientific details of the GPT-4 model to the public.
However, the AI firm refutes the existence of any agreement with Musk.
OpenAI said: “There is no Founding Agreement, or any agreement at all with Musk, as the complaint itself makes clear.
“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.”
OpenAI, supported by Microsoft, seeks complex case designation from the court.
It expects extensive legal proceedings due to the involvement of AI technology and claims spanning nearly a decade.
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OpenAI contends the evidence would demonstrate Musk’s approval of the company adopting a for-profit structure, contrary to the allegations in his lawsuit.
Amid this legal tangle, Musk has ventured into AI with his lab, X.AI, launching a chatbot named Grok, available on X (formerly Twitter), indicating plans to open-source Grok’s code.
The company’s ChatGPT had 100 million weekly users as of November.
OpenAI said: “Seeing the remarkable technological advances OpenAI has achieved, Musk now wants that success for himself.
“So he brings this action accusing Defendants of breaching a contract that never existed and duties Musk was never owed, demanding relief calculated to benefit a competitor to OpenAI.”
