Elon Musk has a 'war of words' with Sam Altman again
"The scammer Altman is at it again...", Musk commented in a user post on Twitter on July 11 with the content that Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI.
In a series of other posts and responses afterward, Musk repeatedly called Sam Altman "Scam Altman", commented "he has taken scams to a new level", or "perhaps he likes scams more than anyone in this world".
Musk even posted a meme of Altman smiling, with the words "I do this because I love it" below, with the explanation: "What he means by 'this' is a scam", and the "laughing until tears" emoji.
The fact that Musk posted a series of content on Twitter made Altman unable to sit still. He accused the SpaceX CEO of trying to attract stock market investors with unproven claims about his ambition to build data centers in outer space.
"Hey man, you're the one convincing stock market investors to invest in short-term space data centers," Altman responded to Musk's post saying he was "taking fraud to the next level", currently receiving 13.7 million views.
"We'll start doing test flights next year. Maybe you can come see it if your probation officer allows it," Musk responded and attracted 5 million views. "After stealing an open source AI charity, you stole all of Apple's phone technology. Oh, what do you have planned for your next performance?".
In another article, Altman took aim at Musk when announcing the new GPT-5.6 Sol model. "There are many evaluation criteria that show the 5.6 Sol is the best model in the world today, but the most reliable way to know that is Elon's obsession," Altman wrote on July 11.
"I'm not afraid of Apple, I greatly respect them, a leading company," Altman continued to reply to the iliketeslas account when this person said he and OpenAI were "afraid" of Apple.
Musk and Altman once had a close relationship. According to Vanity Fair, many years ago when he was president of startup incubator Y Combinator, Altman met Musk, and visited the SpaceX rocket factory.
In early 2015, the two often had dinner together in the Bay Area, discussing how the world might end in the future, what people need to prepare, and agreeing that AI will grow smarter than humans and at some point it will become uncontrollable. Both proposed creating a "Manhattan Project" in the field of AI to develop super artificial intelligence AGI. OpenAI was born later.
However, by 2017, the relationship began to fall apart. According to several emails submitted to the court obtained by Business Insider, Musk requested control of OpenAI and became CEO. Altman disagreed and convinced the other two co-founders, Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever, to support him. By 2018, Musk left the company because there was no longer a common voice.
In the following years, OpenAI focused on research, before causing a global sensation with ChatGPT at the end of 2022. Musk began publicly criticizing the old company, and founded xAI in 2023 (currently merged with SpaceX and renamed SpaceXAI).
Since then, many wars of words between Musk and Altman broke out on social networks, most recently earlier this year. Last year, Musk sued OpenAI and Altman for "deviating from their original non-profit mission", demanding $134 billion in compensation but lost.
OpenAI and Altman are now facing the latest lawsuit from Apple. On July 10, the company that owns the iPhone accused two of its former employees and OpenAI of taking advantage of secrets obtained from the company to enter the consumer hardware manufacturing field.
"OpenAI stole Apple's trade secrets and confidential information at every level, from technical staff to hardware directors," Apple stated in a 41-page application filed with a federal trial court in California.
In response, OpenAI affirmed that it "does not care about the commercial secrets of other companies".
Bloomberg reviews the lawsuit was filed after months of simmering tensions between the two companies, which are targeting the emerging AI device market - a field that is expected to reshape the way consumers use technology. Some sources revealed that the focus of the rift is Tang Tan, the former Apple director who oversaw the design of the iPhone, smartwatch and a number of other products. At the end of 2023, he resigned and joined OpenAI as hardware director.
Apple still allows him to continue working until February 2024 to serve the transition process. However, Tan is said to be collaborating with former Apple design director Jony Ive and Sam Altman to create a new AI device that can compete with the iPhone.
According to AFP, the lawsuit will significantly complicate OpenAI's much-awaited IPO plan. The company is currently valued at $852 billion and has raised more than $180 billion from investors. Expanding operations into the consumer devices sector is a great opportunity to maintain growth.