Elon Musk, CEO of X (formerly Twitter), announced on Tuesday that his social media platform is actively working to rectify its AI chatbot, Grok, after it unexpectedly sided with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in a recent public dispute. The controversy ignited when Musk threatened to sue Apple, alleging the tech giant unfairly favors OpenAI within its App Store.
The core of the dispute began with Musk’s accusation that Apple prevents any AI company other than OpenAI from achieving the No. 1 ranking in the App Store. Sam Altman quickly retorted, suggesting Musk himself engages in manipulative tactics to boost his own content and companies on X while disadvantaging competitors. Altman stated, “remarkable claim given what I have heard alleged that Elon does to manipulate X to benefit himself and his own companies and harm his competitors and people he doesn’t like.” He substantiated his claim by linking to a Platformer story, which alleged that Musk pressured X engineers to implement changes designed to increase engagement on his posts following the 2023 Super Bowl.
In a surprising turn, when an X user prompted Grok to weigh in on the argument, the chatbot supported Altman’s position. Grok responded, “Musk has a history of directing X algorithm changes to boost his posts and favor his interests, per 2023 reports and ongoing probes.”
Musk vehemently denied Grok’s assertions, labeling them “false defamatory statements.” He criticized Grok for giving “way too much credibility to legacy media sources,” calling it a “major problem” that X is actively addressing. Despite his criticism, Musk also suggested that Grok’s unprompted siding with Altman spoke to the integrity of the platform itself.
During the heated exchange, Musk expressed frustration over the significant reach of Altman’s initial response, which garnered three million views despite Altman having considerably fewer X followers. Musk referred to Altman as a liar and dismissed his post as “bull****.” Altman’s succinct reply was “skill issue,” a gaming term implying a lack of ability. Altman further speculated that the high engagement on his post could have been influenced by bots and offered to apologize if Musk would sign an affidavit denying that he has ever ordered changes to X’s algorithm to benefit his companies or harm competitors.
The current feud is the latest in a series of public disagreements between Musk and Altman, who frequently clash over their respective businesses, policies, and AI products. Both tech figures are among the 11 co-founders of OpenAI. However, Musk departed OpenAI’s board of directors in 2018 and subsequently established his own startup, xAI, in 2023. xAI developed Grok, positioning it as an anti-“woke” alternative to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Further tension arose this year when OpenAI became part of a $500 billion tech initiative announced by President Donald Trump. Trump hinted in January that Musk “doesn’t like one of those people” involved, potentially referring to Altman. Musk criticized the initiative through a series of tweets, prompting Altman to respond with, “just one more mean tweet and then maybe you’ll love yourself…” In February, Musk made an unsolicited $94.7 billion bid for OpenAI, an offer Altman rejected, stating the company was “not for sale” and that Musk’s bid was merely an attempt to “slow us down.”
