US entrepreneur Elon Musk has sharply increased his legal demands against the AI company OpenAI. In a recent filing, Musk values the resulting damage at a sum between 95 and 109.4 billion dollars.
Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015, accuses the organization and its CEO Sam Altman of breaking the original agreement to develop artificial intelligence for the public good.
The core of the conflict is OpenAI's transformation from a non-profit organization to a for-profit company that has entered a close partnership with Microsoft. Musk's lawyers argue that this restructuring violates the 'founding agreement'. They claim that OpenAI is now primarily focused on maximizing profits instead of making the technology freely available for the benefit of humanity.
According to the lawsuit, the demanded sum reflects the increase in value that OpenAI has achieved by deviating from its original ideals. While Musk stresses that his concern is adhering to ethical principles in AI development, observers also point to the competitive situation between OpenAI and Musk's own AI company, xAI. OpenAI has consistently rejected the accusations in the past, describing the lawsuits as Musk's attempt to gain a competitive advantage.
