OpenAI CEO believes Elon Musk will not use political power against rivals

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman dismissed concerns that rival Elon Musk could use his newfound political influence to undercut rivals and boost his own artificial intelligence efforts.

“It would be profoundly un-American to use political power to harm your competitors and benefit your own companies,” Altman said in an interview at the New York Times DealBook Summit on Wednesday. “I don’t think people would tolerate that. I don’t think Elon would do it.”

Musk has emerged as a key ally of President-elect Donald Trump and was recently named head of the new Ministry of Government Efficiency alongside former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

Musk and Altman have a strained relationship. Musk, who helped launch OpenAI as a nonprofit, has spent months waging a legal battle against Altman and the ChatGPT maker for alleged betrayal of his founding mission. While OpenAI remains the market leader for generative AI products, Musk’s company xAI has quickly gained momentum by raising billions from investors.

In the interview on Wednesday, Altman called Musk’s startup “a serious competitor” to OpenAI and said he has “tremendous respect” for Musk’s plans to build an xAI data center in Tennessee. Altman also expressed disappointment about the state of their relationship.

It was “extremely sad,” he said when asked about Musk’s lawsuit. “I grew up with Elon as a mega hero.”