Elon Musk and Sam Altman are still bashing each other on Musk’s X social media platform.
While both men were founders at OpenAI, where Altman is CEO, they subsequently dabbled in social media, court filings and corporate blog posts.The last exchange started when Altman published what he called “a story in three acts,” with screenshots showing he reserved a 2018 Tesla Roadster, then recently tried to cancel it and request a refund of the $50,000 reservation fee, only to have his email bounced.
“I was really excited about the car!” Altman wrote. “And I understand the delays. But 7.5 years was a long time to wait.”
The second-generation Roadster sports car was first announced in November 2017, but has been repeatedly pushed back, with Musk (Tesla’s CEO) recently saying that a new version will be presented by the end of this year.
Musk initially responded to Altman’s post with writing“You stole a non-profit,” a review that is directed at Altman and OpenAI before — not only in tweets, but also with lawsuits and takeover offers seeking to block OpenAI’s efforts to restructure as a for-profit company (a process OpenAI recently completed, with its nonprofit arm retaining control of the for-profit public benefit corporation).
Musk even launched a rival AI startup, xAI, which is suing OpenAI and Apple over allegations that the two companies are working together to stifle competition. (Altman said the charge is “remarkable … given what I’ve heard Elon does to manipulate X to benefit himself and his own companies and hurt his competitors and people he doesn’t like.”)
In addition to repeating his criticism of Altman and OpenAI, Musk proposed today as well that Altman’s screenshots didn’t tell the full story: “And you forgot to mention Act 4, where that problem was fixed and you got a refund within 24 hours. But that’s in your nature.”
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