U-turn! Elon Musk-owned Grok AI supports Sam Altman publicly. Says Musk has a history of…
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.'
Also read: Apple teams up with top apps for next-gen Siri launch
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.
Also read: CEO Tim Cook says Apple is ready to open its wallet to catch up in AI
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.
Also read: iPhone 16e quick review: Compact but powerful contender
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.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
an hour ago
- Business Standard
GenAI paradox: Companies pouring billions into AI; it has yet to pay off
Nearly four decades ago, when the personal computer boom was in full swing, a phenomenon known as the 'productivity paradox' emerged. It was a reference to how, despite companies' huge investments in new technology, there was scant evidence of a corresponding gain in workers' efficiency. Today, the same paradox is appearing, but with generative artificial intelligence. According to recent research from McKinsey & Company, nearly eight in 10 companies have reported using generative AI, but just as many have reported 'no significant bottom-line impact'. AI technology has been racing ahead with chatbots like ChatGPT, fueled by a high-stakes arms race among tech giants and superrich start-ups and prompting an expectation that everything from back-office accounting to customer service will be revolutionised. But the payoff for businesses outside the tech sector is lagging behind, plagued by issues including an irritating tendency by chatbots to make stuff up. That means that businesses will have to continue to invest billions to avoid falling behind — but it could be years before the technology delivers an economywide payoff, as companies gradually figure out what works best. Call it the 'the generative AI paradox,' as McKinsey did in its research report. Investments in generative AI by businesses are expected to increase 94 per cent this year to $61.9 billion, according to IDC, a technology research firm. But the percentage of companies abandoning most of their AI pilot projects soared to 42 per cent by the end of 2024, up from 17 per cent the previous year, according to a survey of more than 1,000 technology and business managers by S&P Global, a data and analytics firm. Projects failed not only because of technical hurdles, but often because of 'human factors' like employee and customer resistance or lack of skills, said Alexander Johnston, a senior analyst at S&P Global. Gartner, a research and advisory firm that charts technological 'hype cycles,' predicts that AI is sliding toward a stage it calls 'the trough of disillusionment.' The low point is expected next year, before the technology eventually becomes a proven productivity tool, said John-David Lovelock, the chief forecaster at Gartner. That was the pattern with past technologies like personal computers and the internet — early exuberance, the hard slog of mastering a technology, followed by a transformation of industries and work. The winners so far have been the suppliers of AI technology and advice. They include Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, which offer AI software, while Nvidia is the runaway leader in AI chips. Executives at those companies have bragged how AI is reshaping their own work forces, eliminating the need for some entry-level coding work and making other workers more efficient. AI will eventually replace entire swaths of human employees, many predict, a perspective that is being widely embraced and echoed in the corporate mainstream. At the Aspen Ideas Festival in June, Jim Farley, the chief executive of Ford Motor, said, 'Artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the US' Whether that type of revolutionary change occurs, and how soon, depends on the real-world testing ground of many businesses. 'The raw technological horsepower is terrific, but it's not going to determine how quickly AI transforms the economy,' said Andrew McAfee, a principal research scientist and co-director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Initiative on the Digital Economy. Still, some businesses are finding ways to incorporate AI — although in most cases the technology is still a long way from replacing workers. One company where AI's promise and flaws are playing out is USAA, which provides insurance and banking services to members of the military and their families. After several pilot projects, some of which it closed down, the company introduced an AI assistant to help its 16,000 customer service workers provide correct answers to specific questions. USAA is tracking its AI investments, but does not yet have a calculation of the financial payoff, if any, for the call center software. But the response from its workers, the company said, has been overwhelmingly positive. While it has software apps for answering customer questions online, its call centers field an average of 200,000 calls a day. 'Those are moments that matter,' said Ramnik Bajaj, the company's chief data analytics and AI officer. 'They want a human voice at the other end of the phone.' That's similar to an AI app developed more than a year ago for fieldworkers at Johnson Controls, a large supplier of building equipment, software and services. The company fed its operating and service manuals for its machines into an AI program that has been trained to generate a problem summary, suggest repairs and deliver it all to the technician's tablet computer. In testing, the app has trimmed 10 to 15 minutes off a repair call of an hour or more — a useful efficiency gain, but hardly a workplace transformation on its own. Fewer than 2,000 of the company's 25,000 field service workers have access to the AI helper, although the company is planning an expansion. 'It's still pretty early days, but the idea is that over time everyone will use it,' said Vijay Sankaran, the chief digital and information officer at Johnson Controls. The long-term vision is that companies will use AI to improve multiple systems, including sales, procurement, manufacturing, customer service and finance, he said. 'That's the game changer,' said Sankaran, who predicts that shift will take at least five years. Two years ago, JPMorgan Chase, the nation's largest bank, blocked access to ChatGPT from its computers because of potential security risks. Only a few hundred data scientists and engineers were allowed to experiment with AI Today, about 200,000 of the bank's employees have access to a general-purpose AI assistant — essentially a business chatbot — from their work computers for tasks like retrieving data, answering business questions and writing reports. The assistant, tailored for JPMorgan's use, taps into ChatGPT and other AI tools, while ensuring data security for confidential bank and customer information. Roughly half of the workers use it regularly and report spending up to four hours less a week on basic office tasks, the company said. The bank's wealth advisers are also employing a more specialized AI assistant, which uses bank, market and customer data to provide wealthy clients with investment research and advice. The bank says it retrieves information and helps advisers make investment recommendations nearly twice as fast as they could before, increasing sales. Lori Beer, the global chief information officer at JPMorgan, oversees a worldwide technology staff of 60,000. Has she shut down AI projects? Probably hundreds in total, she said. But many of the shelved prototypes, she said, developed concepts and code that were folded into other, continuing projects. 'We're absolutely shutting things down,' Ms. Beer said. 'We're not afraid to shut things down. We don't think it's a bad thing. I think it's a smart thing.' McAfee, the M.I.T. research scientist, agreed. 'It's not surprising that early AI efforts are falling short,' said McAfee, who is a founder of Workhelix, an AI-consulting firm. 'Innovation is a process of failing fairly regularly.'
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
2 hours ago
- First Post
Is Sam Altman gearing up to take on Musk's Neuralink? Report says...
Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, is working to co-found a brain-to-computer interface startup called Merge Labs. If Merge Labs moves forward, it would mark Altman's bid to stake a claim in a field Musk has championed Musk, who left OpenAI after his failed attempt to take over the company in 2018, has long been critical of the firm. Image Credit: Reuters Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, is working to co-found a brain-to-computer interface startup called Merge Labs, according to the Financial Times. The venture is said to be seeking funding at a potential $850 million valuation, with some capital possibly coming from OpenAI's own ventures arm. Sources told TechCrunch that talks remain early and OpenAI has not committed to participating, meaning the terms could still change. Merge Labs is reportedly collaborating with Alex Blania, head of Tools for Humanity, the company behind Altman's iris-scanning digital ID project. The new company would compete directly with Elon Musk's Neuralink, which is developing brain implants to help people with severe paralysis control devices using thought alone. Neuralink, founded in 2016 and valued at $9 billion after a June fundraising round, is currently running human trials. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The concept of 'the merge'— humans integrating with technology— has long fascinated both Musk and Altman. In a 2017 blog post, Altman wrote that the merge 'has already begun' and predicted humans would become 'the first species ever to design our own descendants.' The idea predates Silicon Valley's current fixation on artificial general intelligence and ties back to earlier visions of 'the singularity.' The two tech leaders, once OpenAI co-founders, have since become open rivals. Musk left the organisation in 2018, and the relationship has soured, with the pair trading public barbs on X this week. If Merge Labs moves forward, it would mark Altman's bid to stake a claim in a field Musk has championed, and a new front in their escalating competition. Elon Musk vs Sam Altman Elon Musk and Sam Altman were once co-founders of OpenAI, but their relationship broke down after Musk left in 2018. Since then, they have become rivals, running competing AI companies: Musk's xAI and Altman's OpenAI. The feud has played out both in business and in public spats. Musk has criticised OpenAI's direction and tried to buy it back, while Altman has pushed ahead with commercial growth. This week, tensions escalated when Musk accused Apple of favouring OpenAI's ChatGPT in the App Store. Altman responded by accusing Musk of manipulating X to benefit his own ventures. Their rivalry now spans technology, influence, and personal reputation, with both positioning themselves as leaders in the race to shape the future of AI. With inputs from agencies
Mint
2 hours ago
- Mint
iPhone 17 Air in sky blue leaked: Video shows colour and size compared to iPhone 16 Pro
Apple's upcoming iPhone 17 Air is expected to be available in four colours, with Sky Blue appearing to be a likely favourite, according to a recently circulated dummy model video. Earlier this year, Apple introduced the M4 MacBook Air in Sky Blue, and the colour reportedly proved popular among users. The forthcoming iPhone 17 Air appears to follow a similar design approach, bringing back the shade for the smartphone line, noted 9To5Mac. A video shared by Majin Bu on X showcases a dummy model of the iPhone 17 Air in Sky Blue from multiple angles. The clip highlights the colour's versatility, which can appear almost white under certain lighting conditions but shows a more distinct blue hue under others. The video also includes a side-by-side comparison with the iPhone 16 Pro in Desert Titanium, offering viewers a sense of the 17 Air's slimmer profile. In terms of specifications, the iPhone 17 Air is expected to feature an A19 Pro processor with a reduced 5-core GPU configuration, according to Chinese tipster Fixed Focus Digital. Only the higher-end iPhone 17 Pro models are predicted to include the full 6-core GPU version. The source, who has previously shared accurate information about the device, suggested that the reduction in GPU cores could be related to chip binning or heat management in the thinner chassis. Reports indicate that the difference in everyday performance is unlikely to be noticeable to most users. These claims contrast with earlier predictions by industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who suggested that the iPhone 17 Air would run on a standard A19 chip, while Fixed Focus Digital maintains that the base iPhone 17 will also use the regular A19. The iPhone 17 Air is anticipated to continue Apple's trend of producing thinner, lighter devices, with additional colour options aimed at appealing to consumer preferences.
