There seems to be no love lost between Elon Musk and Sam Altman. The former allies turned rivals have played out their differences in the public, indicating the depth of their rift. The most recent case involves a tweet from the Open AI boss and the SpaceX chief executive’s response.
Altman had taken to X to congratulate president-elect Donald Trump’s AI and crypto policy chief nominee, David Sacks. Little did he know that the post would earn him ridicule from the world’s richest man. Yet he precisely got that, with the outspoken X owner and Trump ally responding with an emoji laughing at his comment.
Why is there a weariness about Musk’s growing political influence?
Musk’s reaction comes hot on the heels of Altman’s recent comments at the New York Times-sponsored DealBook Summit. Then, the Open AI CEO had insisted that his erstwhile ally wouldn’t use his newfound clout around the Trump presidency to fight his competition.
Altman said:
I believe pretty strongly that Elon will do the right thing and that it would be profoundly un-American to use political power to the degree that Elon would hurt competitors and advantage his own businesses.
~Altman
Musk, who was pivotal to President Trump’s re-election, is set to co-head the DOGE department with Vivek Ramaswamy. With his new mandate, many analysts suggest that the billionaire will be one of the men to watch in the Trump 2.0 administration. And with the nomination of Sacks, a close ally, it’s understandable that his business rivals would feel concerned.
Musk has sued Open AI and its management
Musk has had a testy relationship with Altman, with whom he co-founded OpenAI and other tech enthusiasts. Things came to a head in 2018 when conflicting interests saw him exiting the Chat Gpt-maker’s fold. Since then, he has been a vocal critic of the leading generative AI company and has sued it and its top brass for different reasons.
For instance, he accuses the firm and its leadership of reneging on its founding principles. In court pleadings, Musk has portrayed OpenAI as a for-profit entity that went back on its non-profit foundation. He contends that in doing so, the company lied to its funders, the public, and regulators.
A different suit claims that the Altman-led outfit is colluding with Microsoft, its primary financier, to prevent Musk’s xAI from making headway in the field. Altman and his co-accused deny the allegations, with the former expressing regret at the turn of events.
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