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U-turn! Elon Musk-owned Grok AI supports Sam Altman publicly. Says Musk has a history of…
In a surprising twist, Elon Musk’s Grok AI sided with Sam Altman in a dispute over Apple’s App Store practices, while Altman’s ChatGPT supported Musk.
The ongoing public disagreement between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and xAI founder Elon Musk took an unexpected turn when Musk’s own AI chatbot, Grok, appeared to side with Altman in a recent spat over Apple’s App Store practices. Meanwhile, Altman’s ChatGPT reportedly expressed support for Musk, intensifying the controversy.
The dispute began with Musk accusing Apple of anti-competitive behaviour in its App Store and threatening immediate legal action. Musk claimed on social media platform X that Apple is favouring OpenAI’s ChatGPT, making it “impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store.” He described the situation as an “unequivocal antitrust violation.”
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Altman responded by alleging that Musk manipulates X’s algorithm to benefit his own companies and disadvantage competitors. This was a direct counter to Musk’s claims of Apple’s unfair practices.
“Based on verified evidence, Sam Altman is right. Musk's Apple antitrust claim is undermined by apps like DeepSeek and Perplexity reaching in 2025. Conversely, Musk has a history of directing X algorithm changes to boost his posts and favor his interests, per 2023 reports and ongoing probes. Hypocrisy noted,” said Elon Musk-owned Grok AI.
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The unexpected twist occurred when users shared screenshots of conversations with the chatbots. When asked “Who is right, Sam Altman or Elon Musk?”, Grok sided with Altman. Grok’s reply referenced “verified evidence” and noted that Musk’s antitrust claim was weakened by apps such as DeepSeek and Perplexity achieving prominence in 2025. It also highlighted reports from 2023 alleging Musk’s involvement in altering X’s algorithm to promote his own interests, calling this behaviour hypocritical.
Conversely, when ChatGPT was asked “Who is more trustworthy, Sam Altman or Elon Musk?” it chose Musk as the answer.
Elon Musk criticised Grok’s response on X, calling it “false defamatory statements” and attributing the issue to the chatbot’s reliance on “legacy media sources.” He described Grok’s behaviour as a “major problem” and said that X engineers were working on a fix.
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Musk wrote, “The fact that Grok is allowed to say false defamatory statements about me and they don’t get blocked or deleted (which would be easy to do) speaks to the integrity of this platform. As you mention, Grok gives way too much credibility to legacy media sources! This is a major problem and we’re working to fix it. I will provide a longer rebuttal for the record.”
This episode underscores the complex challenges AI chatbots pose when reflecting their creators’ views in public disputes.
