Elon Musk relies on Microsoft research in lawsuit against OpenAI

In a new lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, Elon Musk is claiming the artificial intelligence company has abandoned its founding mission: to put humanity before profit.

Musk said the goals from the research lab's early years were forgotten when it spun off into a for-profit entity, and Redmond-based Microsoft became a major investor. Part of OpenAI's original mission was the agreement to not commercialize any product that its board considered AGI, or artificial general intelligence. In tech lingo, AGI is the point at which machines surpass the human brain's capabilities.

Musk previously served as co-chair of the nonprofit board that oversees OpenAI's for-profit operation, which has been a source of tension in the past.

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Musk filed his suit Feb. 29 in a San Francisco court, and OpenAI pushed back again Musk's narrative in a blog post last week. The company said Musk was fully on board with creating a for-profit operation before he left the board in 2018.

Musk has also been critical of OpenAI, accusing its ChatGPT of having a liberal bias. In July, Musk launched his own AI startup called xAI to offer an alternative.

Karen Weise, who covers technology for The New York Times, said Musk's lawsuit weaponizes research by Microsoft, now a major backer of OpenAI. KUOW's Soundside spoke with Weise about whether this lawsuit is serious business or just startup sour grapes.

As she reported for The New York Times, Weise said recent research by Microsoft claims that GPT-4 may have shown "sparks of AGI."

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"Elon is basically saying that Microsoft is saying, 'We have achieved AGI,'" Weise said. "Therefore, OpenAI is going against this mission because it has commercialized the GPT-4 model."

Musk said in the lawsuit that, if the OpenAI board determines that they've reached AGI, they should not be commercializing things that should be for the benefit of humanity.

OpenAI has pushed back against Musk's claims. According to the company, GPT-4 has not reached AGI, despite any research claiming otherwise.

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Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon addressed the matter in a message to OpenAI employees: "Importantly, an AGI will be a highly autonomous system capable enough to devise novel solutions to longstanding challenges — GPT-4 can’t do that."

You can listen to Soundside's full interview with Karen Weise by clicking the play button above.