OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has sharply escalated his long-running feud with Elon Musk, responding to newly filed court documents and recent public comments with a series of posts on X, tracking their ongoing legal and business disputes.
This latest round of the feud began after court filings in Musk’s lawsuits against OpenAI and Apple became public. Jason Kwon, OpenAI’s chief strategy officer, wrote that Musk and his AI company, xAI, produced almost no substantive internal documents during discovery, allegedly relying instead on disappearing messages.
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Altman reposted those claims, along with what has become a Musk catchphrase: “Concerning!”
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Screenshots of the filings posted online by Kwon appeared to support OpenAI’s argument that key communications were not preserved.
Altman didn’t stop there. He followed up with a more direct jab, writing that he was “really excited to get Elon under oath in a few months.” He called the prospect “Christmas in April.”
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Altman and Musk are involved in several lawsuits challenging OpenAI’s governance changes, including its restructuring from a nonprofit into a for-profit business. Musk has argued those moves betray OpenAI’s original mission, while OpenAI has called Musk’s suits frivolous.
Early last year, Musk led a $97 billion bid to acquire OpenAI, which Altman publicly rejected.
The posts build on years of tension over OpenAI’s direction. Just two weeks ago, Altman was pushing back against Musk on X due to the latter’s claim that ChatGPT posed a mental health risk to users. Altman noted Musk’s criticism was inconsistent, and explained the difficulty of balancing safety with access for a massive user base.
In the same exchange, Altman pointed to Tesla’s autopilot safety record as an example of Musk’s own company facing public scrutiny.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
