Elon Musk wants to sue Microsoft: Here's why
Elon Musk has never been a fan of how OpenAI banded together with Microsoft and became a profit-making company. But he has taken his dislike for the Redmond-based tech giant up a notch this time. The Twitter CEO has threatened Microsoft with a potential lawsuit. And no, it's not because he loathes Microsoft. Then, what led to Musk's threat?
Why does this story matter?
Musk is one of the co-founders of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. He, however, left the firm in 2018. A year later, Microsoft made its first investment in the company. The OpenAI-Microsoft partnership has irked Musk. He once said OpenAI is now a "maximum profit" company controlled by Microsoft. To challenge them, Musk plans to come up with his own AI chatbot.
Microsoft's advertising platform has dropped Twitter
Musk's threat came as a reply to a tweet saying Microsoft's advertising platform will stop supporting Twitter. The tech giant reportedly made the decision due to Twitter putting its API behind a paywall. "They trained illegally using Twitter data. Lawsuit time," the Twitter CEO responded to the tweet. But what is Musk alluding to here? Who trained whom?
Musk is talking about OpenAI using Twitter to train LLMs
The billionaire's threat is unclear. However, it appears he is talking about OpenAI using Twitter to train its large language models (LLMs), including GPT-4 and GPT-3.5. Social media resources are part of LLM training. Of course, he should be threatening OpenAI, but Musk's beef seems to be with Microsoft. After all, Microsoft has integrated GPT-4 into a number of its products.
Microsoft does not want to pay Twitter's API fees
We are unsure whether Musk is actually concerned about OpenAI/Microsoft using Twitter illegally, or whether he is unhappy about the message on Microsoft's advertising platform. The message on Microsoft's Smart Campaign Service says it will stop supporting Twitter from April 25. Large companies like Microsoft will have to pay as much as $40,000 for access to Twitter API.
Twitter will not be an option for running ad campaigns
When we say Microsoft will drop Twitter from its advertisement platform, it does not mean Microsoft is stopping its ads on Twitter. It only means those using Microsoft's ad platform will not be able to choose Twitter as an option for their ad campaigns.
Data war is brewing between AI companies and data owners
Musk may or may not go through with the suit, but his statement is an indication of the impending data war between AI companies and data owners. Reddit also plans to charge AI companies for scraping its data. The data from social media platforms like Reddit and Twitter capture informal, back-and-forth conversations, which is important for training LLMs.
