Elon Musk, an early investor in OpenAI, is suing the company, claiming it has departed from its original mission to “benefit humanity.”

Earlier this month, news broke that Elon Musk was launching a quixotic lawsuit against OpenAI, the innovative artificial intelligence outfit he co-founded with Sam Altman. Musk was an early financial supporter of OpenAI, and on its surface, the suit alleges breach of contract and seeks the return of Musk’s original investment.

But as someone who teaches ethical philosophy, it’s clear to me that Musk is intentionally trying to couch his narrow legal charge in a much broader — and very explicit — moral argument. I’m not buying it.

According to the suit, the Tesla CEO originally got involved with OpenAI so that he could help develop the technology for the “benefit of humanity.” But now, he alleges, “Mr. Altman (has) caused OpenAI to radically depart from its original mission,” abandoning his principles in the pursuit of “profit and power.” The risks of doing so are potentially dire because Musk “has long recognized that AGI (artificial general intelligence) poses a grave threat to humanity.” Mr. Altman, we presume, does not, and Musk demands that OpenAI return to its “humanitarian mission.”

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In framing the allegations in this way, Musk is doing........

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