When talking about the shareholders of OpenAI, many people will immediately think of Microsoft. During the early development of ChatGPT, Microsoft invested 10 billion dollars, taking a significant risk, which ultimately paid off successfully.
However, OpenAI’s shareholders are not limited to Microsoft alone but also include Elon Musk — yes, the same Elon Musk who is the CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX.
Strictly speaking, Musk is a co-founder and early supporter of OpenAI, having injected tens of millions of dollars into the company, playing a “key role” in supporting OpenAI’s development. However, recently, Musk has instructed his legal team to sue OpenAI, as shown in the figure below.
So, why have Musk and OpenAI turned against each other? Why file a lawsuit? What are the motives and purposes behind the lawsuit?
Simply put, Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI is not due to any contractual or financial disputes but because he is dissatisfied with OpenAI’s violation of the “non-profit organization” mission established at its inception.
During the early days of OpenAI, the relationship between Musk and OpenAI’s executives was relatively harmonious. However, since 2017, the two parties have had significant disagreements over the future direction of OpenAI.
Musk took a firm stance, demanding that OpenAI must continue to operate as a non-profit organization. If anyone wanted to make money, they should resign and start anew.
Regarding Musk’s perspective, OpenAI’s executives generally held objections. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded by saying, “For years, we did operate as a non-profit organization, up until 2018. But then we submitted a new charter draft. (In this new charter, we) modified and adjusted OpenAI’s future development goals to promote AGI for the benefit of all humanity (thus moving towards commercialization).”
This shift caused strong dissatisfaction from Musk, and the relationship between the two parties gradually deteriorated and broke down. Subsequently, the funding Musk provided to OpenAI gradually decreased, with only $3.48 million in 2019.
Later, OpenAI caught the attention of the financially robust Microsoft, which continuously invested in it. Currently, OpenAI has effectively become a closed-source subsidiary of Microsoft.
And it began to commercialize gradually, strategically assisting Microsoft in maximizing profits, rather than following the non-profit, humanity-benefiting mission set at its inception, something Musk finds intolerable and strongly opposes.
Therefore, against this backdrop, Musk instructed lawyers to file a lawsuit against OpenAI in the California Superior Court, accusing OpenAI executives of violating the company’s established charter (see figures three and four), transforming OpenAI from a non-profit to a for-profit organization.
Objectively speaking, OpenAI’s various specific development projects (including ChatGPT and Sora) have huge development costs. As the largest shareholder, Microsoft’s investment is also very substantial. Thus, the commercialization of these projects and the pursuit of profit returns are generally blameless, a very normal and natural thing.
The commercialization of OpenAI (and other various AI projects) is an inevitable, unstoppable, and unchangeable trend. Therefore, the likelihood of Musk winning the lawsuit against OpenAI is very low, representing more of an ideological statement.
However, regardless, Musk’s belief that artificial intelligence must adhere to a non-profit, humanity-benefiting principle is highly respectable. Humanity is fortunate to have a Musk; but it’s also regrettable that there’s only one Musk.
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