Jealousy is a illness.
Sticks and Stones
This week, tech rivals Elon Musk and Sam Altman have been falling over themselves to win the favor of returning president Donald Trump.
The petty squabble began on Tuesday, when an aggrieved Musk took to social media to place down Trump’s just-announced $500 billion AI mission, “Stargate.” Altman’s OpenAI was a prominently-featured companion within the mission whereas Musk’s xAI was handed over, with Trump calling Altman the “main skilled primarily based on all the things I learn.”
That did not sit effectively with Musk, who fumed online that OpenAI would not “even have the cash” for the mission. Altman shot back that Musk was “incorrect, as you absolutely know,” and invited him to “come go to the primary website.”
Is it skin-crawlingly embarrassing to see adults publicly grovel for the love of a daddy figure? Completely — however within the uneasy new world of the tech trade below Trump, it is in all probability going to be par for the course.
Greatest Boy
Musk then doubled down by reposting a 2021 screenshot of a tweet by Altman through which the OpenAI CEO praised efforts to maintain Trump from being reelected within the 2020 election. For good measure, he stored reposting and replying to anti-Altman posts effectively into Wednesday night time, along with his standard insightful commentary: “Wow” and “True.”
“Altman actually testified to Congress that he wouldn’t get OpenAI compensation and now he desires $10 billion!” Musk quote tweeted one Reuters article. “What a liar.”
Why is Trump’s embrace of Altman getting so deeply below Musk’s infamously skinny pores and skin? The two have a history, however the principle difficulty recently is clearly that Musk spent hundreds of millions of dollars to get Trump reelected, whereas Altman is a johnny-come-lately to the Trump Prepare — and already reaping the advantages.
The rift is prone to be one in every of many we’ll see within the months to return as the rich and highly effective flock to the Oval Workplace to win the privilege of Trump’s ear. That mentioned, it is unlikely any might be fairly as dramatic as that between Musk and Trump, an unlikely alliance between two notoriously troublesome personalities that appears liable to collapse at any second.
Altman, who has a extra subdued profile and who’s principally let Musk rage with out reply all through the tiff, lastly caved earlier right now with a reducing subtweet: “only one extra imply tweet after which possibly you may love your self.”
Extra on posting: Elon Musk Once Said He Mainly Tweets While Pooping, So We Now Have Grave Concerns About the Condition of His Gastrointestinal System