“I won’t even start on Grok,” Sam Altman fires back at Elon Musk’s ChatGPT warning; takes a dig at Tesla

Sam Altman, Elon Musk

• Sam Altman rebuts Elon Musk's criticism of ChatGPT safety and guardrails
• Altman highlights OpenAI's responsibility to protect vulnerable users
• Altman compares Musk's safety record at Tesla and xAI to OpenAI's practices

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has pushed back against Elon Musk’s latest criticism of ChatGPT, after the Tesla and xAI boss suggested people should not let their loved ones use the AI chatbot. The exchange marks another escalation in the increasingly public feud between the two former collaborators.

In a post on X, Altman acknowledged that building guardrails for a product used by nearly a billion people is “genuinely hard,” particularly when some users may be in fragile mental states. “Sometimes you complain about ChatGPT being too restrictive, and then in cases like this you claim it’s too relaxed,” Altman said, underlining the contradictory nature of the criticism OpenAI often faces.

Altman stressed that OpenAI takes user safety seriously, especially when it comes to protecting vulnerable users. “Almost a billion people use it and some of them may be in very fragile mental states,” he said, adding that the company feels a “huge responsibility” to get safety decisions right. At the same time, he argued that overly aggressive safeguards could prevent other users from benefiting from the technology. “We need to protect vulnerable users, while also making sure our guardrails still allow all of our users to benefit from our tools,” Altman said.

The OpenAI CEO also drew a pointed comparison with Musk’s own track record on safety. Referencing reports that more than 50 people have died in crashes linked to Tesla’s Autopilot system, Altman suggested Musk’s criticism was misplaced. He said the only time he personally rode in a car using Autopilot, his immediate reaction was that it did not feel safe enough to have been released in the first place.

Altman also took aim at Musk’s AI venture, xAI, and its chatbot Grok, saying he would “not even start” on some of the decisions made around that product. The remarks echoed a broader accusation often levelled at Musk online, summed up by the phrase Altman referenced: “every accusation is a confession.”

While Musk has repeatedly accused OpenAI of being reckless and profit-driven, Altman’s response suggests he believes Musk’s warnings lack credibility given the safety controversies surrounding Tesla and Grok.