The feud between the two dates back to 2018, when Musk left the OpenAI board. — AFP
The long-running rivalry between tech titans Sam Altman and Elon Musk reignited this week with a public clash over Apple's App Store rankings and alleged manipulation of the X algorithm.
On Monday night, Musk threatened to sue Apple, accusing the company of "unequivocal antitrust violations" for allegedly giving preferential treatment to OpenAI's ChatGPT, which currently holds the top spot on the US App Store.
"Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1," Musk wrote. He added that his company, xAI, "will take immediate legal action."
Altman, CEO of OpenAI – which he co-founded with Musk in 2015 – quickly fired back.
"This is a 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," Altman wrote, referencing a 2023 Platformer report detailing how Musk allegedly ordered changes to X's algorithm to boost his own visibility.
The feud between the two dates back to 2018, when Musk left the OpenAI board. Since then, he has become one of Altman's most vocal critics, recently refiling a lawsuit in August over OpenAI's partnership with Microsoft.
The exchange on Monday soon turned personal.
"You got (3 million) views on your (expletive) post, you liar, far more than I've received on many of mine, despite me having 50 times your follower count!" he wrote.
Altman countered with a challenge: "Will you sign an affidavit that you have never directed changes to the X algorithm in a way that has hurt your competitors or helped your own companies?" He added that he would apologise if Musk could truthfully confirm it.
The spat followed a CNBC interview last week in which Altman appeared to brush off Musk's criticisms.
"I don't think about him that much," he said.
Musk, meanwhile, claimed his Grok chatbot outperforms GPT-5, calling the latest OpenAI model "already worse" than his own. – San Francisco Chronicle/Tribune News Service
