The lawsuit alleges that the release of GPT-4 is evidence of the apparent shift in OpenAI’s goals. Previously, OpenAI technology was open-source, with the public plugged into what was happening. But GPT-4, launched last year, was kept secret during development. The lawsuit claims that the secrecy was “driven by commercial considerations, not safety.”
Another incident highlighted in the lawsuit was Altman’s firing and subsequent rehiring to OpenAI at the hands of the board. CNN claims that industry experts saw the rehiring as the right move for commercializing AGI. The lawsuit alleges that the debacle with Altman showcased Microsoft’s control over the company, and noted that “the public is still in the dark regarding what exactly the Board’s ‘deliberative review process’ revealed” that resulted in Altman’s firing.
OpenAI has amassed a value of $90 billion because Altman, Brockman, and Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever launched the for-profit OpenAI LP inside the company in 2019. This was a year after Musk left the OpenAI board. Since his departure, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX have been very vocal about the possible threat AGI poses to humanity. He has even gone on record saying that it could be more dangerous than nuclear weapons.
The lawsuit claims that “Where some like Mr. Musk see an existential threat in AGI, others see AGI as a source of profit and power.” Neither OpenAI nor Microsoft has publicly addressed the lawsuit as of now.
