Elon Musk is trying to pit ChatGPT against its owner as his feud with Sam Altman escalates
Musk posted a screenshot of a query to ChatGPT 5 Pro on Tuesday, asking if he or Altman was "more trustworthy." ChatGPT chose Musk.
"There you have it," Musk wrote.
Business Insider posed the same query as Musk to ChatGPT eight times, testing it across the GPT 5 Pro, GPT 5 Thinking, and GPT 5 models. ChatGPT picked Musk once, while it was set to GPT-5 Thinking. The rest of the attempts returned Altman, including when it was toggled to GPT-5 Thinking again.
Musk and OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
Later, Musk posted the screenshot in response to an X post from OpenAI's ChatGPT account. The account had shared a query to Musk's chatbot, Grok, asking if Musk was right to say Apple had committed antitrust violations.
Musk threatened to sue Apple on Monday over what he said was its bias toward OpenAI on the App Store.
But Grok — in a response reposted by the official ChatGPT X account — disagreed with Musk's opinion of the Apple rankings.
"Good bot," the OpenAI-affiliated account said of Grok's response, adding that Grok was very "truth-seeking."
"You too," Musk replied.
You too pic.twitter.com/eFMypoCi97
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2025
Musk cofounded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 but left its board in 2018. Since then, Musk has publicly criticized Altman's leadership of OpenAI.
Last year, Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the company of violating its nonprofit mission when it partnered with Microsoft.
Musk launched his AI startup, xAI, in July 2023. Grok, its first chatbot, was released in the same year.
Musk isn't the only one who has tried to pit a chatbot against its creator. In May, Altman asked Grok if it would pick him or Musk to lead the AI arms race if the fate of humanity was at stake.
"If forced, I'd lean toward Musk for his safety emphasis, critical for humanity's survival, though Altman's accessibility is vital. Ideally, their strengths should combine with regulation to ensure AI benefits all," Grok said in response to Altman's query.
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