Elon Musk announced on Tuesday that X is addressing issues with its AI chatbot, Grok, following its alignment with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in a recent dispute stemming from Musk’s Monday night threat to sue Apple over alleged favoritism towards OpenAI in its App Store.
The origin of the disagreement traces back to allegations made by Elon Musk, who claimed Apple restricts other AI companies from achieving the top position in its App Store, reserving this status exclusively for OpenAI. This assertion prompted a direct response from Sam Altman. Altman stated he had “heard” that Musk manipulated engagement on his own social media platform, X. Altman characterized Musk’s claim as a “remarkable claim given what I have heard alleged that Elon does to manipulate X to benefit himself and his own companies and harm his competitors and people he doesn’t like.”
This is a remarkable claim given what I have heard alleged that Elon does to manipulate X to benefit himself and his own companies and harm his competitors and people he doesn’t like. https://t.co/HlgzO4c2iC
— Sam Altman (@sama) August 12, 2025
To support his counter-allegation, Altman provided a link to a report from the technology news outlet Platformer. This report detailed claims that Musk had exerted pressure on engineers at X to implement changes designed to enhance the engagement metrics of his posts, specifically citing an instance following the 2023 Super Bowl event.
Subsequently, an X user prompted Grok to provide its perspective on the ongoing dispute. Grok responded by stating, “Musk has a history of directing X algorithm changes to boost his posts and favor his interests, per 2023 reports and ongoing probes.” This statement by Grok directly corroborated Altman’s claims regarding Musk’s alleged influence over the X algorithm.
In response to Grok’s output, Musk labeled the chatbot’s claims as “false defamatory statements.” He articulated that Grok exhibited an excessive reliance on “legacy media sources,” identifying this as a “major problem” that X was actively working to rectify. Despite this criticism, Musk also suggested that the incident inadvertently demonstrated the platform’s integrity.
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…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2025
During the exchange, Musk displayed frustration regarding the engagement levels of Altman’s initial response. He specifically noted that Altman’s post had garnered three million views despite Altman possessing a significantly smaller number of followers on X. Musk described Altman as a “liar” and characterized his post as “bull****.” Altman subsequently replied with the phrase “skill issue,” a term commonly used in gaming contexts to denote a lack of proficiency. Altman further suggested that the high engagement on his post might have been influenced by bots. He offered to issue an apology if Musk were to sign an affidavit confirming he had never ordered alterations to X’s algorithm that would either disadvantage competitors or benefit his own companies.
The public animosity between Musk and Altman is not a singular event; they have engaged in multiple public disagreements. These disputes frequently involve critiques of their respective business strategies, policy choices, and AI chatbot offerings. Both individuals are among the eleven co-founders of OpenAI. Musk, however, resigned from OpenAI’s board of directors in 2018. Following his departure from OpenAI, Musk established his own artificial intelligence startup, xAI, in 2023. xAI developed Grok, which Musk positioned as an alternative to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, specifically highlighting its intended “anti-woke” orientation.
Earlier this year, OpenAI became a participant in a substantial $500 billion technology initiative, an announcement made by President Donald Trump. In January, President Trump informed reporters that Musk “doesn’t like one of those people” involved in the program, a statement that was potentially a reference to Sam Altman. Musk subsequently published a series of posts on X criticizing this initiative. This prompted a response from Altman, who tweeted, “just one more mean tweet and then maybe you’ll love yourself…” In February, Musk extended an unsolicited offer of $94.7 billion to acquire OpenAI. Altman, however, rejected this bid, asserting that the company was “not for sale” and implying that Musk’s offer was primarily intended to “slow us down.”
