Elon Musk has scored a minor yet significant victory in his legal face-off with OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman. Just a day after OpenAI accused Musk of harassment in a lawsuit, a surprising twist has added more fuel to the fire — twelve former OpenAI employees have now entered the legal battlefield, siding with Musk’s concerns. Ex-employees stand gainst OpenAI’s for-profit shift In a newly filed amicus brief, these former data scientists and engineers, who worked at OpenAI between 2018 and 2024, voiced strong opposition to the company’s decision to shift control from its nonprofit arm to a for-profit model. According to their statement, this change would “fundamentally violate its mission.” They argue that OpenAI was built on ideals that should serve the public, not private profit. These employees claim the original nonprofit must continue to have the upper hand in the company’s decisions to stay true to its founding purpose. Represented by a legal heavyweight Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig is representing the group. One of the petitioners, Todor Markov, took to X (formerly Twitter) to clarify that their move isn’t about supporting Musk but about protecting public interest. “We worked at OpenAI; we know the promises it was founded on. We’re worried those promises will be broken. The nonprofit needs to retain control of the for-profit,” Markov wrote. Why Musk is suing OpenAI Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI with Sam Altman and others, left in 2018. After OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022, Musk became one of its loudest critics. He claims the company strayed from its original nonprofit goal, especially after taking billions in funding from Microsoft. Musk’s new AI venture, xAI, has already launched its own chatbot, Grok, and he continues to challenge OpenAI legally for moving toward profit-driven goals. OpenAI pushes back OpenAI, however, maintains that its nonprofit mission remains intact. In response to the allegations, the company stated it is simply converting its for-profit side into a public benefit corporation, similar to other AI labs like Anthropic—where some of the petitioning ex-employees now work.
