OpenAI rejects Elon Musk’s accusations of betrayal, to counter him in court

OpenAI, the organisation behind artificial intelligence chat app ChatGPT, refuted Elon Musk's accusations of a betrayal of its original mission and announced its intention to seek the dismissal of the claims in court.

Musk, who in fact is a co-founder of OpenAI in 2015 alongside Sam Altman, had departed in 2018 andhas become a prominent critic of the AI-focused organisation.

Last week, Musk initiated a legal case against OpenAI, contending in a San Francisco court that the firm was initially intended to be a nonprofit entity.

In response, OpenAI and its executives stated in a blog post, "We intend to move to dismiss all of Elon's claims."

OpenAI gained public attention in late 2022 with the launch of its chatbot, ChatGPT, capable of generating poems, essays, and excelling in exams.

Originally conceived as a nonprofit dedicated to developing artificial general intelligence (AGI), OpenAI aimed to create AI surpassing human capabilities across various measures of intelligence, with a focus on ensuring the technology's safety for humanity.

Microsoft invested approximately $13 billion in OpenAI in recent years, leading both companies to offer AI services to developers and individuals. Altman and other Silicon Valley startup executives presented their counter-arguments on Tuesday, supported by emails.

Expressing disappointment in Musk's actions, the blog post stated, "We're sad that it's come to this with someone whom we've deeply admired — someone who inspired us to aim higher, then told us we would fail, started a competitor, and then sued us when we started making meaningful progress towards OpenAI's mission without him."

In 2017, realising the need for substantial capital, Musk suggested attaching OpenAI to Tesla as its "cash cow." However, facing resistance, Musk eventually left OpenAI, asserting a zero per cent probability of its success and expressing plans to develop an AGI competitor within Tesla.

Upon departure in February 2018, Musk conveyed support for OpenAI finding its own path to raising billions of dollars, according to the blog post.

Additionally, Altman and colleagues highlighted OpenAI's commitment to providing free AI access to organisations and countries, citing Albania as an example, where OpenAI's tools are aiding EU accession acceleration by up to 5.5 years.

(With inputs from agencies)