OpenAI has brought receipts to the table in what is now a very public battle with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) owner Elon Musk, who last week sued the artificial intelligence company alleging it had violated its original charter to develop open-source AI.
"OpenAI, Inc. has been transformed into a closed-source de facto subsidiary of the largest technology company in the world: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)," the lawsuit brought by Musk states.
"Its technology, including GPT-4, is closed-source primarily to serve the proprietary commercial interests of Microsoft."
In a blog post on the company’s website, OpenAI opted to air Musk’s dirty laundry in response to the lawsuit, revealing emails that showed Musk’s attempt to pressure the founder of the company to let him take it over via Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA, ETR:TL0).
We are dedicated to the OpenAI mission and have pursued it every step of the way.We’re sharing some facts about our relationship with Elon, and we intend to move to dismiss all of his claims.https://t.co/npC4P5pJE7
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) March 6, 2024
Billions per year
The billionaire is alleged to have written in an email to OpenAI after withdrawing from the company in 2018: “Even raising several hundred million won’t be enough. This needs billions per year immediately or forget it."
OpenAI took on a hybrid model of ‘capped profit’ in 2019 after realising the vast funding needed to build the kind of processing power necessary for AI would not come easily.
The not-for-profit OpenAI Inc. now manages the for-profit company OpenAI LLC under a structure that caps investors’ profits at 100 times their investment.
The idea is that any additional profits would be re-invested in the not-for-profit side of things, funding ventures for general social good.
Don’t meet your heroes
The OpenAI blog post laments “that it has come to this”, asserting that Musk had understood the trajectory the company would need to take to be viable since the beginning.
“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,” the blog post reads.
“We are focused on advancing our mission and have a long way to go. As we continue to make our tools better and better, we are excited to deploy these systems so they empower every individual.
“We are now sharing what we've learned about achieving our mission, and some facts about our relationship with Elon.
“We intend to move to dismiss all of Elon’s claims.”