The tech bros engaged in a bid to harness our thoughts

After falling out with each other, two giant egos have turned their rivalry into a race to develop technology that connects human brains with computers

- Chris Stokel-Walker

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, and Elon Musk, the owner of X (formerly Twitter), used to be close to one another. The two operated in the same Silicon Valley social circles, and even came together to found a company. But their dispute has since turned sour, and - given their interest in new brain-harnessing technology - it could affect us all.

The enmity between Altman and Musk dates back a decade, to their co-founding of OpenAI, the artificial intelligence lab now best known for being behind ChatGPT, at an academic conference in 2015. The founding principle of OpenAI was to develop artificial intelligence in a way that could benefit humanity - something that Musk believes the company went back on, hence his departure in 2018. In the years since, and particularly since the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, Musk has looked on with suspicion.

As ChatGPT became more popular, Musk felt the need to compete. He launched xAI the following July with the stated intention “to understand the true nature of the universe”. Then, in February this year, he filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that it had strayed from its original nonprofit mission and had been “transformed into a closed-source de facto subsidiary of the largest technology company: Microsoft”.

Since then, the two tech egos have clashed constantly, including earlier this month when they fought over claims of bias and manipulation by Apple in relation to their respective AI platforms. Musk claimed that Apple was giving preferential treatment to OpenAI’s ChatGPT in the App Store, allegedly making it impossible for any other AI company - including his own xAI and its chatbot Grok - to reach the top of the App Store rankings.