These are the implications of the Elon Musk-OpenAI lawsuit to watch, and more AI and tech news this week
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These are the implications of the Elon Musk-OpenAI lawsuit to watch, and more AI and tech news this week

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There’s new drama surrounding OpenAI — and the saga seems to be getting saucier by the day.

Last week, billionaire Elon Musk sued OpenAI and co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman , alleging that they breached their founding agreement by pursuing profits instead of developing AI that benefits humanity.

The company hit back this week in a public rebuttal , with a post from Brockman, Altman, Ilya Sutskever , John Schulman and Wojciech Zaremba saying that they plan to have all claims in the suit dismissed.

The post also countered Musk’s claims that he was against OpenAI pursuing profits, featuring excerpts from his emails that showed him accepting plans for it to become a for-profit business . OpenAI’s co-founders instead accused Musk — an early backer of OpenAI — of seeking “absolute control” of the company and trying to merge it with Tesla .

The lawsuit marks the latest high-profile battle for OpenAI, which has emerged as the most prominent company at the forefront of AI, even despite some chaotic leadership turmoil not too long ago. (Note: LinkedIn parent 微软 is an investor in OpenAI.) But unlike the last kerfuffle, which caught the company on the backfoot , OpenAI looks to be in a pretty good position for this fight, experts say.

“Their (OpenAI’s) response to Elon's lawsuit is like the end of Avengers when every hero in history descends on Thanos,” Conor Grennan , dean of students and head of generative AI at New York University’s Stern School of Business, wrote on LinkedIn. “Look, Elon Musk is brilliant. He is also the kid that, as soon as he starts losing a race, tells on everyone to his mom that they shouldn't be racing. We’ve seen that over and over.”

Veteran tech investor Vinod Khosla , who is also an early investor in OpenAI, reiterated that Musk’s move was “a case of sour grapes” in a recent interview with LinkedIn News.

“He hasn't acknowledged the fact that what he tried to do is make sure that he could get control of OpenAI himself, and merge it with the efforts around self-driving AI at Tesla,” Khosla told me.

Many view the lawsuit as the culmination of Musk's laundry list of grievances against OpenAI — with him having been critical of Altman's leadership of the company since he left OpenAI's board in 2018. Musk will face an uphill battle from a legal standpoint, even though his claims are not entirely meritless, experts said.

For instance, it has historically been difficult for courts to litigate when investors bring claims to the effect that a company's management isn’t acting in the interests of its shareholders, said Jason Sitomer, VP of legal at AI-powered fintech investment firm Tifin.

“It’s extremely difficult to prove business intent — courts prefer not to put themselves in the seat of judgment in determining whether something is for the benefit of shareholders or not,” he told LinkedIn News. “There are practical considerations too, where OpenAI could conceivably argue that commercialization was necessary in order to further their mission to develop AGI for the public benefit.”

It’s also not clear if a court would interpret the discussions between Musk and OpenAI’s co-founders as a binding contract, which Musk is arguing in his lawsuit.

“The ‘contract’ that Sam Altman and OpenAI allegedly breached isn’t something like an express and binding agreement executed by two or more parties (i.e., what you normally think of as ‘contract’ in a business context), but rather an e-mail,” Rex Ritesh Chatterjee , managing principal at private law practice Chatterjee Legal, wrote on LinkedIn.

Such discussions are called “illusory promises” and are generally not legally enforceable, Andrew Stoltmann , a securities lawyer and adjunct professor at Northwestern University’s law school, told Bloomberg . If it’s established that there was no contract, then Musk’s case will likely be dismissed.

A common thread between the OpenAI board’s abrupt firing of Altman in November and Musk’s lawsuit, however, is artificial general intelligence (AGI) , which is a concept that has no agreed-upon definition in the world of AI.

Musk’s suit claims that OpenAI’s GPT-4 model is itself AGI, and therefore the company is violating its charter that states that any AI system constituting AGI shouldn’t be commercialized. But OpenAI defines AGI as “a highly autonomous system that outperforms humans at most economically valuable work,” and under the terms of its charter, OpenAI’s nonprofit board has the sole discretion to determine when AGI has been achieved — which it hasn't as yet.

This would be a complicated argument to make in court, as in order to make a ruling, a jury would have to say whether or not OpenAI has achieved AGI .

“I can't even begin to imagine how one would succeed in a determination in what is or is not AGI,” said Tifin’s Sitomer.

Still, the lawsuit ultimately raises several important questions that have been swirling around the AI industry related to AGI, ethics and governance — such as what exactly constitutes AGI, the direction of AI regulation, whether a company can maintain its foundational principles while navigating commercial realities, and more.

“The outcome of this case could set a precedent for how mission-driven tech companies may balance profit with purpose, or more specifically, how they may not, further underscoring the need for clearer corporate structures and accountability mechanisms,” Sitomer wrote on LikedIn.

Here’s where we bring you up to speed with the latest advancements from the world of AI.

Here’s a list of other notable AI developments from this week:

Catch up on the tech headlines you may have missed this week and what our members are saying about them on LinkedIn.

  • Redditors could make or break the company's upcoming IPO . About 75,000 of the site's most devoted users have days left to register for a chance to buy shares before Reddit, Inc. starts trading on the open market, Bloomberg reports . But members of the r/WallStreetBets forum — famously (or infamously) credited with initiating the GameStop short squeeze are threatening to bet against the stock, arguing that Reddit is still consistently losing money. Others say the chance to invest isn't enough compensation for the unpaid work they've put into making the site successful. The company could be valued at as much as $6.5 billion in the IPO.

Here’s keeping tabs on key executives on the move and other big pivots in the tech industry. Please send me personnel moves within emerging tech.

Thanks for reading. Please share Tech Stack and forward it around if you like it! And if you have any news tips, find me on InMail .



Andrew Griffin

Attended Montgomery County Community College

8 个月

Ken kring what do you think about the situation when only years ago we're dealing with a black man's life got too short right there in London they never spoke about the situation about how much money that was missing how much money did they take why should DC have to come up with all that money to Mr Andrew Griffin a long black man a wealthy businessman with that certain peoples that was in Jackson Mississippi was involved with it that was Democrats and politician one is in court now the ugliest on TV speaking I never thought ever in life did you peaches would be wrong to justice for destroying a man's life I never know that they're usually Porter to remove a man's head from his body to take their ass talking to their body man they bottom of his chocolate person I never knew anything like that but she showed us to see about all of them I never think that Michelle Obama was the one that I do things to hurt a person but the lady spoke out of that agree about the situation these situation like that should have been dealt with for me to get better the lady should have been gay life for the charge that she committed because it shows years ago that it was a bit into a person even though he was me I asked myself everyday why

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Andrew Griffin

Attended Montgomery County Community College

8 个月

Eric Kang playing political about the situation here what do you think about what's going on in Washington DC about the situation do you think the party members that did the crime years ago do you think they need lineage what do you think about the situation here Eric certain people speak out about the situation it started believe back in London when they said porters up and robbed them people the rich people's in London Andrew Griffin was one of them no ones wants to speak about the situation now look right there in Washington DC now she's on TV speaking ain't she no one's just speaking about Mr Griffin family members how she changed these people how she did all this is to the family members right there at Pike county McComb Mississippi and other parts of the city don't want to speak in certain peoples are speaking out about certain things and terms what about the people the man life got wrong they stole all his cars look at that Facebook but you don't say anything the one is racing the cars just a nephew

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Andrew Griffin

Attended Montgomery County Community College

8 个月

The street political about the situation what's going on in Washington DC what do you think about the problem years ago that the lady calls you at a young man bathrooms you still a man's royalty in the mass money they went overseas to London she said a quarter up to traffic man she still a man's Roots a family members I never knew anything about and then how did they go in being office for the crime lady committed years ago everyone is trying to figure things out about the situation what's going on up there Washington DC about certain Democrats a certain politician what do you think let's talk about that let's talk about a lot of doing look at this lady right there in Jackson Mississippi she is the one that destroyed the man's life messed it up halfway by removing his head from his body now she is quarter about something else that lady wants to have life in prison I remember this

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Abu S.

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8 个月

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