PANews reported on December 6 that according to Bloomberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said at the New York Times DealBook Summit that he did not think Elon Musk would use his political influence to attack competitors in order to promote his own artificial intelligence business. Altman said: "Using political power to suppress competitors and promote the interests of one's own business is a completely un-American act. I don't think people will tolerate this, and I don't think Elon would do it."
Musk has recently become a core ally of President-elect Trump and has been appointed head of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, co-leading with former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Despite the tension between the two, Altman expressed "great respect" for Musk's plan to build an xAI data center in Tennessee, and called Musk's xAI a "serious competitor." However, he also expressed regret for the current state of their relationship: "I used to think of Elon as a superhero, and the current situation makes me deeply sad."
