Musk Fires at Sam Altman and Associates for Turning OpenAI into Their ''Personal Piggy Bank''

I. OpenAI Today

138. Defendants’ unbridled power and profit focus have led to a recent flurry of safety and legal concerns and forceful pushback against OpenAI and Altman for abandoning their non-profit mission.

139. Along with pending civil litigation from media outlets like The New York Times, Raw Story, and The Intercept concerning OpenAI’s illegal use of their media content to train GPT models, the takeover of the Board and Microsoft’s increasingly close relationship with OpenAI have sparked numerous ongoing investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Federal Trade Commission, and various U.K. and E.U. regulators. On July 22 and August 1, 2024, the U.S. Senate sent Altman demand letters seeking documents and questioning OpenAI’s commercial practices, commitment to safety, and its attempts to muzzle employee-whistleblowers. [9]

140. Further, in a series of letters dated January 9,[10] March 5,[11] and June 6, 2024[12] to the California Attorney General, the prominent consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen detailed numerous issues concerning Altman’s selfdealing and the troublesome power OpenAI’s for-profit arm is wielding over the non-profit, urging the AG to investigate OpenAI, Inc.’s section 501(c)(3) status.

141. In addition, on information and belief, OpenAI is hemorrhaging employees and executives on a continual basis. In large part, the resignations appear to be in protest to Altman and OpenAI’s increasingly unfettered and conflicted pursuit of profits at the expense of safety.

142. For instance, in May 2024, Chief Scientist Dr. Sutskever and OpenAI, Inc. executive Jan Leike resigned. The two had been the leaders of OpenAI, Inc.’s “Superalignment” team tasked with managing the risk that its technology “could lead to the disempowerment of humanity or even human extinction.”13 Leike stated he could no longer work at the company because he was concerned that safety and societal impact “have taken a backseat to shiny products.”[14]

143. Other employees, including Daniel Kokotajlo resigned because they “lost trust in OpenAI leadership and their ability to responsibly handle AGI.” In an interview with Vox on May 18, 2024, [15] Kokotajlo stated: “I joined with substantial hope that OpenAI would rise to the occasion and behave more responsibly as they got closer to achieving AGI. It slowly became clear to many of us that this would not happen.” That same article reported numerous other departures: “at least seven people [] tried to push OpenAI to greater safety from within, but ultimately lost so much faith in its charismatic leader [Altman] that their position became untenable.”

144. Carroll Wainwright, a former alignment researcher for OpenAI, also resigned in May 2024 because “I worry that the board will not be able to effectively control the for-profit subsidiary, and I worry that the for-profit subsidiary will not be able to effectively prioritize the mission when the incentive to maximize profits is so strong.”[16]

145. The world is finally seeing through Altman’s long con.

146. A June 15, 2024 article in Cointelegraph entitled “OpenAI Reportedly Considering Shift to For-profit as CEO Stacks Board” details how Altman “told shareholders he was considering the [for-profit] move sometime during the week of June 10. If realized, the pivot would ostensibly result in OpenAI’s nonprofit board losing control of the company.”[17] Altman is now fast-tracking his plan to turn the non-profit Musk co-founded into the for-profit business Altman had always envisaged.

147. Altman set the bait and hooked Musk with sham altruism then flipped the script as the non-profit’s technology approached AGI and profits neared, mobilizing Defendants to turn OpenAI, Inc. into their personal piggy bank and OpenAI into a moneymaking bonanza, worth billions.

[9] Letter from Sens. King, Lujan, Schatz, Warner & Welch to Samuel Altman, CEO of OpenAI (July 22, 2024), https://www.schatz.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/letter_to_openai.pdf; Letter from Sen. Grassley to Samuel Altman, CEO of OpenAI (August 1, 2024), https://www.washingtonpost.com/documents/8bf076a6-663b-4552-be52-079b79274f9c.pdf.

[10] Letter from Public Citizen to California Attorney General on OpenAI’s Nonprofit Status (Jan. 9, 2024), https://www.citizen.org/article/letter-to-california-attorney-general-on-openaisnonprofit-status/.

[11] Follow Up Letter from Public Citizen to California Attorney General on OpenAI’s Nonprofit Status (Mar. 5, 2024), https://www.citizen.org/article/second-letter-californiaattorney-general-openai-nonprofit-status-musk-lawsuit/.

[12] June 2024 Follow Up Letter from Public Citizen to California Attorney General Regarding OpenAI’s Nonprofit Status (June 6, 2024), https://www.citizen.org/article/june-2024- california-ag-openai-nonprofit-status-letter/.

[13] https://www.openai.com/index/introducing-superalignment/.

[14] https://www.x.com/janleike/status/1791498174659715494.

[15] Samuel, “I lost trust”: Why the OpenAI team in charge of safeguarding humanity imploded, Vox (May 18, 2024), https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2024/5/17/24158403/openairesignations-ai-safety-ilya-sutskever-jan-leike-artificial-intelligence.

[16] https://www.x.com/clwainwright?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^twee.

[17] Greene, OpenAI reportedly considering shift to for-profit as CEO stacks board, Cointelegraph (June 15, 2024), https://www.cointelegraph.com/news/open-ai-artificialintelligence-for-profit.