Why OpenAI Is at War With an Obscure Idea Man

In a David vs. Goliath legal battle, AI powerhouse OpenAI is squaring off against a little-known entrepreneur who claims he conceived the company's name and mission months before its star-studded launch. Guy Ravine, a self-taught programmer with a history of near-misses in tech, registered the domain open.ai in March 2015. He envisioned a collaborative platform to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI) for the benefit of humanity. By year's end, Ravine had pitched his 'Open AI' concept to industry luminaries and filed for a trademark. Then, in December 2015, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman announced the creation of OpenAI, backed by a promised billion dollars from Elon Musk and others.

The similarity was uncanny -- a non-profit aimed at developing AGI for the public good. 'What the f---?' Ravine recalls thinking. He claims his idea was stolen, while OpenAI dismisses him as an opportunistic 'troll' and a 'fraud.' The ensuing legal battle has consumed Ravine's life, Bloomberg Businessweek covers in great detail, and has raised thorny questions about idea ownership in Silicon Valley. It also casts a shadow over OpenAI's origin story as the company, now valued at $157 billion, shifts from its non-profit roots to a for-profit juggernaut. 'It's humanity's asset,' Ravine insists. 'It's not his [Altman's] asset.' For now, a judge has barred Ravine from using 'Open AI' while the suit proceeds, but the inventor has vowed to fight on against what he calls 'the most feared law firm in the world.' An amusing excerpt from the story: But Ravine had poked the bear, and as he packed up his house on Aug. 11, 2023, he opened an email from a lawyer at the firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, informing him that OpenAI was suing him in federal court over the domain and trademark. 'I'm like, what the f---?' Ravine recalls. Altman, he says, 'could have had it for free' -- or at least for the cost of a donation. 'Instead, he decided to donate millions of dollars to literally the most feared law firm in the world, to sue me.'

Again and again in our conversations, he returns to that phrase: 'the most feared law firm in the world.' Finally, I ask him how he knows this. He turns his laptop toward me and pulls up the email. The signature reads 'Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP: Most Feared Law Firm in the World.'

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