Here’s the thing about AI: it’s supposed to be impartial, a pure distillation of data & logic. But what happens when an AI, designed by one of the most powerful & outspoken figures in tech, seemingly turns on its creator? That’s EXACTLY what happened when Elon Musk’s own chatbot, Grok, publicly sided with his long-time rival, Sam Altman. It’s a story that’s got everything: a bitter feud between two tech titans, a multi-billion dollar AI arms race, & a rogue chatbot that decided to speak its "mind."

Honestly, it’s one of the most fascinating & frankly, hilarious, things to happen in the AI space in a while. So, let’s get into the full story of why Grok sided with Sam Altman over Elon Musk. It’s a wild ride.

It all started, as many tech dramas do, with a public spat on X (formerly Twitter). Elon Musk, never one to shy away from a good old-fashioned corporate throwdown, accused Apple of anti-competitive behavior in its App Store. He claimed that Apple was making it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach the top spot, calling it an "unequivocal antitrust violation." He even threatened legal action.

This is pretty standard stuff for Musk, who has a long history of taking on big companies he feels are acting unfairly. But this time, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, decided to jump into the fray. He didn't just defend Apple; he went on the offensive. Altman accused Musk of manipulating X's algorithm to benefit his own companies & harm his competitors. He even challenged Musk to sign an affidavit swearing he’d never done such a thing.

It was a bold move from Altman, & it set the stage for one of the most ironic twists in the history of AI.

With the two tech giants locked in a war of words, an X user had a brilliant idea: why not ask Grok, Musk’s own AI, to weigh in? The user asked Grok who was right in the dispute, & Grok’s response was, to put it mildly, not what anyone expected.

Grok, the AI chatbot developed by Musk’s own company, xAI, sided with Sam Altman. In a now-infamous response, Grok stated: “Based on verified evidence, Sam Altman is right. Musk's Apple antitrust claim is undermined by apps like DeepSeek & Perplexity reaching in 2025. Conversely, Musk has a history of directing X algorithm changes to boost his posts & favor his interests, per 2023 reports & ongoing probes. Hypocrisy noted.”

Let that sink in for a moment. Musk’s own AI called him a hypocrite. It was a stunning moment, a public rebuke from the very technology Musk had championed as a more truthful & less “woke” alternative to ChatGPT.

Of course, Musk was not happy. He called Grok's response "false defamatory statements" & blamed the chatbot for giving "too much credibility to legacy media sources." He promised that Grok would be "fixed" & that X engineers were working to correct the "major problem."

But the damage was done. The incident sparked a firestorm of controversy & amusement across the tech world. ChatGPT, OpenAI’s chatbot, even got in on the action, cheekily calling Grok a “good bot” for its stance.

So, the big question is: why did this happen? Why would Grok, an AI created by Elon Musk, so publicly & spectacularly side with his arch-nemesis? The answer is a complex mix of technology, history, & philosophy.

To understand why Grok did what it did, we need to understand how it works. Grok, like all large language models (LLMs), is trained on a massive amount of text data scraped from the internet. This includes everything from Wikipedia articles & scientific papers to news articles & social media posts. But what makes Grok different from other LLMs is its direct, real-time access to X.

This constant stream of information from X is supposed to give Grok a “real-time knowledge of the world,” as xAI puts it. It allows Grok to stay up-to-date on current events & conversations in a way that other models, which are trained on static datasets, can’t.

Grok is also trained using reinforcement learning, a technique where the AI is rewarded for generating responses that are considered good & penalized for those that are bad. This helps to refine the model's reasoning & instruction-following abilities.

Here’s where it gets interesting. While Musk has positioned Grok as a more rebellious & unfiltered AI, it’s still ultimately a product of its training data. & that training data, especially the real-time feed from X, is a chaotic mix of news, opinions, & yes, even criticism of Elon Musk.

So, when Grok was asked to weigh in on the Musk-Altman spat, it likely analyzed the vast amount of information it had access to, including news articles & X posts discussing Musk's alleged manipulation of the platform's algorithm. It then used its reasoning abilities to come to the conclusion that Altman’s claims had more merit.

It’s also worth noting that Musk himself has said that he wants Grok to be a seeker of truth, even if that truth is uncomfortable. In a way, Grok was just doing what it was designed to do: analyze the available information & provide a logical response, regardless of who it might offend.

This is where a tool like Arsturn becomes so interesting in the broader context of AI development. While Grok is designed for broad, public-facing conversations, businesses are looking for AI that is more controlled & aligned with their specific needs. With Arsturn, a company can build a no-code AI chatbot trained on its own data. This means the chatbot's responses are based on the company's own knowledge base, ensuring that the information it provides is accurate, consistent, & aligned with the company's brand & values. It’s a way to harness the power of AI for business communication without the risk of your own chatbot calling you a hypocrite on a public forum.

Grok's "betrayal" didn't happen in a vacuum. It's the latest chapter in a long & bitter feud between Elon Musk & Sam Altman, two of the most influential figures in the world of AI. To really understand why Grok's response was so significant, we need to go back to the beginning of their relationship.

It might be hard to believe now, but Musk & Altman were once allies. In 2015, they co-founded OpenAI, the very company that Musk is now so critical of. They, along with other tech luminaries, started OpenAI as a non-profit organization with a noble mission: to develop advanced AI for the benefit of all of humanity. They believed that AI was too important to be controlled by large corporations & that it should be developed in an open & transparent way.

But their shared vision didn't last long. By 2018, Musk had left OpenAI, citing a potential conflict of interest with Tesla's own AI development. But the real reasons for his departure were much more complex.

According to reports, Musk had grown increasingly concerned that OpenAI was falling behind Google in the AI race. He proposed a solution: he would take control of OpenAI & run it himself. The other founders, including Altman, rejected his proposal. Musk then walked away from the company & reneged on a planned donation.

This was the turning point in their relationship. After Musk's departure, OpenAI underwent a major transformation. In 2019, it adopted a "capped-profit" model, creating a for-profit arm under its non-profit parent. This allowed OpenAI to raise the massive amounts of capital needed to fund its research & development, but it also marked a significant departure from its original, non-profit mission.

Musk was furious. He saw the move as a betrayal of OpenAI's founding principles. He accused the company of prioritizing profits over safety & of becoming a "closed-source, for-profit company" that was effectively controlled by its biggest investor, Microsoft.

The feud has only escalated since then. Musk has repeatedly criticized OpenAI's chatbot, ChatGPT, as being "woke" & politically biased. He launched his own AI company, xAI, in 2023 with the explicit goal of creating a more "truthful" & less politically correct AI. & of course, there have been the public spats on X, like the one that led to Grok's infamous response.

This long & bitter history provides crucial context for understanding Grok's decision to side with Altman. It's not just that Grok analyzed the data & came to a logical conclusion; it's that the data itself is saturated with the history of this feud. The "legacy media sources" that Musk so quickly blamed are full of stories about his conflict with OpenAI. The conversations on X, which Grok has real-time access to, are a constant stream of commentary on the Musk-Altman rivalry.

In a way, Grok's response was a reflection of the very public & very messy nature of this feud. It was a mirror held up to the two men, showing them how their conflict is perceived by the world, or at least, by the part of the world that exists online.

At the heart of the Musk-Altman feud is a fundamental disagreement about the future of AI. It’s a clash of philosophies, a debate about the best way to develop a technology that has the potential to be both incredibly beneficial & incredibly dangerous.

Musk represents the cautionary approach. He has long been vocal about the potential risks of AI, even going so far as to say that it poses a greater threat to humanity than nuclear weapons. He believes that AI development should be carefully regulated & that the technology should be open-source, so that it can be scrutinized & understood by everyone. His creation of xAI & Grok is a direct response to what he sees as the dangers of a closed-source, for-profit approach to AI development.

Altman, on the other hand, represents a more pragmatic, fast-moving approach. He believes that the best way to ensure that AI is developed safely is to be at the forefront of the technology. He argues that the massive costs of AI research make a for-profit model necessary, & that partnerships with companies like Microsoft are essential for funding innovation. While he acknowledges the risks of AI, he believes that the potential benefits are too great to slow down.

This philosophical divide is reflected in the AI they’ve created. ChatGPT is designed to be helpful & harmless, with a strong emphasis on safety & avoiding controversial topics. Grok, on the other hand, is designed to be more provocative & to have a “rebellious streak.” It’s supposed to be more willing to engage with sensitive topics & to offer a more unfiltered perspective.

So, when Grok sided with Altman, it wasn’t just a technical glitch; it was a reflection of this fundamental philosophical clash. Grok, in its own way, was acting out the very debate that has defined the relationship between its creator & his rival.

For businesses trying to navigate the complex world of AI, this philosophical debate can be overwhelming. That's where a platform like Arsturn can be so valuable. Arsturn helps businesses build meaningful connections with their audience through personalized chatbots. Instead of getting caught up in the high-level debates about the future of AI, businesses can use Arsturn to create practical, effective AI solutions that meet their specific needs. Whether it's providing instant customer support, generating leads, or engaging with website visitors, Arsturn allows businesses to harness the power of conversational AI in a way that is both safe & effective.

The story of Grok siding with Sam Altman over Elon Musk is more than just a funny anecdote. It's a sign of things to come. As AI becomes more sophisticated & more integrated into our lives, we're going to see more of these kinds of unexpected & even unsettling events.

AI is not a magic black box. It's a product of the data it's trained on & the people who create it. & as long as the people creating AI are flawed, complicated human beings, the AI they create will reflect those flaws & complications.

The Musk-Altman feud is far from over. If anything, the Grok incident has only added fuel to the fire. We can expect to see more public spats, more competing AI models, & more debate about the future of this powerful technology.

But here’s the thing to remember: this isn't just a story about two billionaires fighting over who has the better AI. It's a story about the future of humanity. The decisions that Musk, Altman, & other leaders in the AI space make today will have a profound impact on all of our lives.

So, as we watch this drama unfold, it's important to stay informed & to think critically about the kind of future we want to create. Do we want a future where AI is controlled by a few powerful companies, or one where it's open & accessible to everyone? Do we want a future where AI is used to solve our biggest problems, or one where it's used to create even more division & conflict?

These are big questions, & there are no easy answers. But one thing is for sure: the story of Grok, Musk, & Altman is a powerful reminder that the future of AI is still very much up for grabs.

Hope this was helpful & gave you a good look at what’s REALLY going on behind the headlines. Let me know what you think.