Altman to Musk: Don't go full supervillain - that's so un-American

OpenAI boss Sam Altman has expressed hope that Elon Musk won't use his political clout to hurt his competitors, describing such activity as "un-American."

During the New York Times Dealbook Summit, Altman was reported as saying: "It would be profoundly un-American to use political power to hurt your competitors and advantage your own businesses. I don't think people would tolerate that. I don't think Elon would do it."

Musk and Altman have fallen out over AI technology, particularly the "openness" of OpenAI's approach and the idea of the company becoming a for-profit business. Earlier this month, Musk filed an injunction against Altman to prevent OpenAI from moving toward an entirely for-profit business.

The latest filing also asks for an injunction to prevent OpenAI and linked parties from investing in the company's competitors.

Having lent his support to US President-elect Donald Trump during the recent US election campaign, it has been announced that Elon Musk will head the "Department of Government Efficiency," charged with finding ways of reducing the US budget.

One of Musk's customers, Jared Isaacman, was nominated as the next administrator of NASA earlier this week. While Musk merely offered his congratulations, it is difficult not to imagine the billionaire exercising some influence over the decision. Isaacman has paid for several rides on SpaceX's Falcon 9, culminating in a recent "spacewalk" in which the space enthusiast stood inside the top hatch of a Crew Dragon, garbed in a SpaceX spacesuit, and looked at Earth.

But using that power to hurt a rival? Un-American. Or so Altman and other tech giants will be fervently hoping as they ponder what the next four years will bring. Musk has fingers in many pies, including social media, rockets, and electric cars, as well as AI technology.

However, it is over AI that the lawsuits and invective are flying at the moment. Musk's xAI is to expand its Memphis supercomputer to house at least one million GPUs, a figure Musk later upped to one billion via a posting on X. The billionaire was probably joking, although Meta, seeking to fuel its AI ambitions, has said it'll need another four gigawatts of power by the time the 2030s roll around. ®