Elon Musk has once again initiated a legal battle with OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research firm he co-founded, and its CEO, Sam Altman. Musk's latest lawsuit, filed today, challenges the partnership between OpenAI and tech giant Microsoft, as reported by Reuters. The complaint contends that OpenAI has deviated from its original mission of promoting the public good, leveraging its advancements in generative AI for profit rather than freely sharing its technology and research as previously promised.

The tech billionaire's renewed lawsuit comes on the heels of a similar case that was abruptly dropped in June. The earlier suit had been filed in California state court, and the new one, at nearly double the length, was lodged in federal court in Northern California and includes additional allegations of engaging in racketeering activity, according to CNN. The legal team representing Musk is accusing OpenAI and its leadership of manipulating him into co-founding the company and prioritizing profit over safety and the non-profit goals the company was supposed to champion.

Musk's discontent with the company's direction seems to center around its transition from a non-profit to a capped-profit company in 2019, which he claims was aimed at self-enrichment by Altman and his colleagues. Musk, who also established another AI venture called xAI in 2023, asserts that Altman and others broke their promise by commercializing OpenAI's technological progress rather than making its AI resources available for the broader public good. This claim was corroborated by the information detailed in the lawsuit, which states that Altman "flipped the narrative and proceeded to cash in", as per Reuters.

The complications between the two parties have been ongoing, with Altman's leadership at OpenAI coming under scrutiny after his brief ousting and subsequent reinstatement, along with Microsoft's involvement with OpenAI. Microsoft had secured a non-voting seat on OpenAI’s board following a multi-billion-dollar investment that has since been relinquished amidst regulatory concerns from Europe, Britain, and the United States, CNN reports. Musk's lawyers have described the actions by Altman and Brockman as, "manipulated" Musk into co-founding OpenAI and illustrated the perceived betrayal as being "of Shakespearean proportions". This latest filing seeks to establish a "constructive trust on Defendants’ ill-gotten gains, property, and assets traceable to Musk’s significant contributions to OpenAI" and to void OpenAI, Inc.’s license to Microsoft, as per CNN.