Two of the most prominent figures in AI are having a public spat once again.
Elon Musk and Sam Altman have engaged a war of words after Apple sued OpenAI for allegedly stealing its trade secrets. After Apple alleged that two of its former employees had stolen its proprietary data before joining OpenAI, Elon Musk — who had hisself made similar claims against OpenAI — got into the action. “Sam Altman is super good at scamming,” he posted on X. “He takes scamming to a whole new level,” he followed up.
Altman, though, didn’t take that lying down. “homeboy you’re the one sellling public market investors on short-term space datacenters,” he replied, in a jab at SpaceX’s space datacenter plans.
Altman didn’t stop there. He used the opportunity to bring up GPT 5.6 Sol, which has done quite well on benchmarks and seems to have been positively received since its release. “there are a lot of benchmarks that suggest 5.6 sol is the best model in the world right now, but the most reliable way to tell is that elon is obsessed with me again,” he said.
This isn’t the first time that Altman and Musk have feuded on X. Musk has previously called Sam Altman Scam Altman over how he’d tried to convert OpenAI from a non-profit to a for-profit entity, but the case had been dismissed by the courts over a technicality. Altman had replied by saying that Musk was insecure and not a happy person.
But even as the insults between the two haven’t stopped, Altman seems to be having a better time at the courtrooms. Elon Musk’s xAI had accused an employee of illegally downloading its proprietary data before leaving for OpenAI, but the case had been dismissed by the courts. In a more high-profile instance, Musk had taken OpenAI to trial over illegally converting OpenAI from a non-profit to a for-profit entity, but the case had been dismissed because it had been brought in too late. They jury is out on who is dishing out the better insults at the moment — Musk seems quite fixated on the scam angle, while Altman does seeem to have more diversity in his comebacks — but it appears that Altman is having the last laugh, as far as their legal battles are concerned.