Elon Musk is suing OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, claiming that they have violated the principles he promised to when he helped create them in 2015.
The complaint, which also names OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, claims the company has strayed from its initial non-profit, open-source objective.
It claims that, rather than attempting to "benefit humanity" as intended, it is concentrating on "maximizing profits" for key investor Microsoft.
OpenAI has been asked for a comment.
The company was founded with the goal of developing artificial general intelligence (AGI), or AI, that can perform any work that a person can.
It was also established as a not-for-profit organization, which means it does not seek to gain money.
According to the complaint filed in San Francisco, Musk agreed to co-found OpenAI with Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman under these terms.
He departed three years later.
"This case is filed to compel OpenAI to adhere to the Founding Agreement and return to its mission to develop AGI for the benefit of humanity, not to personally benefit the individual defendants and the largest technology company in the world," according to the complaint.
The lawsuit comes after the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that US authorities were investigating the ChatGPT inventor to see if investors had been deceived, following boardroom upheaval at OpenAI in November 2023.
Altman was abruptly removed from the board, only to be returned a few days later.
The board at the time accused Altman of not being "consistently candid in his communications" and stated that, as a result, they had "lost confidence" in his leadership.
Microsoft became extensively involved in the dispute, including an offer to hire any OpenAI employees who resigned.
Musk expressed his concern about the issue in a post on X, which was previously known as Twitter.
His attorneys now claim in their complaint that these "stunning developments" demonstrate Microsoft's growing influence over the corporation.
"Its technology, including GPT-4, is closed-source, primarily to serve the proprietary commercial interests of Microsoft," it said.
Microsoft's initial $1 billion investment in OpenAI in 2019 occurred shortly after the AI business, which had previously operated as a non-profit, revealed a new "capped profit" structure that would allow investment in it.
Following the debut of OpenAI's chatbot, ChatGPT, Microsoft increased the investment to a multi-year, multi-billion dollar collaboration in January 2023.
The association is currently being reviewed by UK, EU, and US regulators.
This article was originally published on the BBC.