Tesla is suing OpenAI and its CEO Ultraman, demanding that OpenAI be open-sourced.

On the evening of February 29th local time, Tesla's CEO Elon Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman in the San Francisco Superior Court for breach of contract, alleging that OpenAI had violated the original intention of using technology for the benefit of humanity and demanded that OpenAI be open-sourced.

In the lawsuit, Tesla pointed out that OpenAI and its CEO Altman had violated an agreement made when the artificial intelligence research company was established, which stated that the development of technology was intended for the benefit of humanity rather than for profit.

Tesla stated that the recent relationship between OpenAI and Microsoft had undermined the original purpose of developing public open-source general artificial intelligence. Tesla stated:

"OpenAI has essentially become a subsidiary of the tech giant Microsoft. Under the leadership of the new board of OpenAI, they are not only further developing but actually perfecting AGI to maximize Microsoft's profits, rather than for the benefit of humanity."

Court documents revealed that Tesla accused OpenAI of breach of contract, violation of fiduciary duties, and unfair business practices, and demanded that the company revert to open-source. Tesla also requested the court to issue an injunction prohibiting OpenAI, its president Gregory Brockman (co-defendant), CEO Sam Altman, and Microsoft from profiting from OpenAI's AGI technology.

Tesla emphasized that AGI is a type of AI developed to autonomously demonstrate cognitive abilities equivalent to humans, as demonstrated in OpenAI's OpenAI-4 model. Tesla pointed out that the OpenAI-4 released in March 2023 is still a closed model compared to previous versions, a move driven by commercial interests rather than human interests.

In the lawsuit, Tesla highlighted that the details of OpenAI-4 are only known to OpenAI and Microsoft internally. Therefore, contrary to its claim of 'open-source AI,' "OpenAI-4 has become a closed-source model for commercial proprietary reasons: Microsoft aims to profit from selling OpenAI-4. If OpenAI were to provide the technology to the public for free as originally intended, Microsoft would not be able to profit from it," Tesla added.

Tesla further stated, "Contrary to the founding agreement, the release of OpenAI-4 by OpenAI and Microsoft was not for the benefit of humanity but as proprietary technology for profit."

Tesla also specifically mentioned the "palace intrigue" at OpenAI in 2023, where Altman was dismissed and quickly reappointed as CEO with Microsoft's involvement. Tesla claimed that after Altman's dismissal, Microsoft was forced to intervene, attempting to dismiss board members who agreed to remove Altman. After this incident, Tesla claimed that there have been changes within the board of OpenAI, with the new members no longer being the scientists and researchers who previously supported and deeply understood technological innovations.

Tesla further stated:

OpenAI was originally established as a non-profit organization to promote the development and research of artificial intelligence technology, while ensuring that these technologies could benefit all of humanity. However, the current OpenAI has deviated from this original intention, being replaced by a CEO purely profit-oriented and a board lacking high professional skills in AGI and AI public policy. The board now retains an observer seat for Microsoft.

As one of the co-founders of OpenAI, Tesla left the board in 2018. He stated that the conflict between the board and Ultraman stemmed from the development of OpenAI-4 and the potential next iteration of AGI technology. Tesla is concerned that this could jeopardize public safety.