one year on
Elon Musk sues Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and OpenAI
The filing alleges OpenAI violated its founding agreements.
Elon Musk today filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altman, and president Greg Brockman, alleging the company has violated its founding agreements by prioritizing profits over humanity. The suit points to OpenAI’s charter, which states: “resulting technology will benefit the public and the corporation will seek to open source technology for the public benefit when applicable” The case is being debated on Hacker News, where the item has 1,462 points and 1,208 comments. Commenters discussed whether OpenAI’s actions—such as not open-sourcing its models—contradict the charter, while others noted the charter’s “when applicable” clause leaves room for interpretation.
The record
Commenters debated whether OpenAI's charter required open-sourcing its models and whether the company had violated its nonprofit mission. Some argued the charter's 'when applicable' language gave OpenAI latitude, while others said the shift to profit contradicted the original intent.
One year later — open only if you can handle spoilers
The lawsuit never went to trial; it was dismissed in June 2024 with leave to amend, and Musk later withdrew the case. However, the filing forced OpenAI to publicly defend its transition to a capped-profit model and sparked renewed scrutiny of its relationship with Microsoft.
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