Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI (L) and Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla.
Reuters
OpenAI on Monday sent a letter to the California and Delaware attorneys general, urging them to investigate “improper and anti-competitive behavior” by Elon Musk and his associates, as a high-profile trial nears between the two sides.
In the letter, OpenAI strategy chief Jason Kwon alleged that Musk has been working to undermine OpenAI through various “attacks” on the company, including by “coordinating his efforts” with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman co-founded the artificial intelligence lab in 2015 as a nonprofit, alongside several other researchers and executives. Musk left OpenAI in 2018, after trying to convince executives to merge it with Tesla. He later launched a competing company, xAI, and sued OpenAI in 2024, alleging that he was “assiduously manipulated” and “deceived” after the AI company explored converting to a for-profit entity.
Jury selection for the trial is slated to begin on April 27, in the Northern District of California.
Kwon said in the letter that Musk’s behavior could inhibit OpenAI’s efforts to bring about artificial general intelligence, or AGI, a broad term for an AI system that rivals or exceeds human intelligence.
“These attacks are designed to take control of the future of AGI out of the hands of those who are legally obligated to pursue the mission of ensuring that AGI benefits all of humanity, and put it into the hands of competitors who lack mission-driven principles and spurn any responsibility for safety,” Kwon wrote.
OpenAI has previously expressed related concerns about Musk’s antics.
In January, the company sent a letter to investors and banking partners warning that it expects Musk to make “deliberately outlandish, attention-grabbing claims” as his lawsuit against the AI lab heads to trial.
OpenAI said in that letter that Musk will likely make comments about the AI company that are not “grounded in reality” and are “typical of the harassment tactics he’s previously deployed.”
— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.
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