African-American tech CEO Elon Musk is threatening a lawsuit against Microsoft after the platform severed an advertising relationship with Twitter, accusing the computer software giant of “illegally using Twitter data” to train its AI products.
Today Microsoft announced its decision to drop Twitter from its advertising platform. The decision means that companies who use Microsoft to handle their digital ad campaigns will no longer be able to include Twitter as part of their strategy. Some have speculated the decision may be fueled by Microsoft’s unwillingness to pay to access to Twitter’s API, which Musk has announced will now come with a fee.
In response to the news, Musk accused Microsoft of “illegally using Twitter data” to train its AI – likely ChatGPT – without permission. “Lawsuit time,” added Musk.
They trained illegally using Twitter data. Lawsuit time.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 19, 2023
Musk has become an open critic of Microsoft’s ChatGPT, which he financially supported while the project remained a non-profit.
Earlier this week, Musk appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” to reveal his plans to create a competing AI service called TruthGPT, which he says will be free from the polarizing liberal censorship present on the Microsoft product.
“What’s happening is they’re training the AI to lie,” Musk told Tucker Carlson. “The most ironic is the most likely outcome it seems.”
“I’m going to start something which I call TruthGPT or a maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe,” Musk revealed in the interview. “I think this might be the best path to safety in the sense that an AI that cares about understanding the universe, it is unlikely to annihilate humans because we are an interesting part of the universe.”
Though Musk’s lawsuit would be the first to tackle issues related to AI, Business Insider recently reported that mainstream social media site Reddit is planning to force companies to pay to use its data for AI training purposes.
At press time, no lawsuits have been filed. It remains unclear if Musk will be able to reach an agreement with Microsoft.
