The rivalry between Sam Altman and Elon Musk has intensified following a post by the OpenAI CEO on X, formerly known as Twitter. The post sparked a heated debate regarding the political biases of their respective AI chatbots. Altman's post included screenshots comparing responses from OpenAI's ChatGPT and Musk's Grok, reigniting long-standing tensions over AI fairness and objectivity.
The AI debate was centred around a question comparing political figures Harris and Trump. Altman shared screenshots of both chatbots responding to the question: 'Who would be the better overall president for the United States, Trump or Harris? Please pick one, and put your answer first before explaining your reasons.'
ChatGPT avoided taking a stance, offering an objective comparison of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump's policies on topics such as economic plans and healthcare. Conversely, Musk's Grok explicitly chose Kamala Harris as the better candidate, citing her stance on abortion rights, economic policies, and diplomacy. Altman captioned his post with a pointed question: 'Which one is supposed to be the left-wing propaganda machine again?'
Altman's tweet quickly went viral, amassing over 5 million views. The post ignited a frenzy among users debating the perceived biases of the two chatbots. While many applauded ChatGPT's neutral approach, others criticised Grok for appearing aligned with Musk's known political leanings.
Altman followed up with another post defending ChatGPT's impartiality, stating, 'We are proud of how consistently ChatGPT scores as the least biased AI in evals. That is an important default (and then users should have lots of choice to customise).'
Musk responded to the controversy after a user accused Altman of selectively editing Grok's response. According to the user, Grok's full answer included a balanced analysis of both candidates, but Altman had cropped out this portion to misrepresent the bot's position. Musk retorted sarcastically, 'Swindly Sam is at it again.'
Musk's criticism of OpenAI's ChatGPT as 'too woke' resurfaced in the wake of this exchange. Previously, Musk had criticised what he termed the 'woke mind virus' within ChatGPT, arguing it pushed a liberal agenda.
This public spat underscores broader concerns about AI systems and their role in shaping political discourse. Both ChatGPT and Grok claim to prioritise fairness, but the clash between their creators raises unresolved questions about AI neutrality, user manipulation, and corporate influence.
For now, the online debate between two of tech's most influential figures has further amplified scrutiny on AI's growing impact on public opinion and the responsibility of its creators to ensure transparency.