Blame game between AI moguls

Over the past few weeks, verbal attacks, physical violence, media criticism, and fears among the masses have gripped the narrative related to artificial intelligence (AI). Even as Anthropic, the maker of Claude, has consistently, and indirectly, levelled ethical charges against OpenAI, the inventors of ChatGPT, the latter’s founder, Sam Altman has blamed the media and the former’s Dario Amodei for physical attacks on him.

Tesla’s Elon Musk, the richest man on Earth, has long hated Altman, and hurled another round of accusations in an ongoing trial. Even as the media questions the ethics, power, and influence of the AI moguls, the public seems scared of AI-related consequences.

Yesterday, Musk alleged that Altman, and his executives, stole OpenAI from the public, and converted a non-profit venture into a for-profit one. In a lawsuit that was filed in 2024 for the same reasons, Tesla’s chief said that he co-founded OpenAI, and later left it or was forced to quit, to keep AI “away from the bad guys.”

Although the phrase includes several hints about ownership, ethics, management, and strategies, the conclusions seem clear, and do not need to be spelt out. The eccentric, and controversial Musk is a positive antidote to Altman.

“It is not ok to steal a charity. If the defendants (Altman and OpenAI) are found not guilty, this case will become caselaw. It will give license to looting every charity in America. The consequences of this case go far beyond me or everyone here.

The entire foundation of charitable giving in America will be destroyed,” Musk said in his critical testimony. In effect, the Tesla owner, who has faced several criticisms in the past, does not want the ‘tail to wag the dog,’ or charities and non-profit ventures to generate hundreds of billions for an individual.

Altman has been on the front foot to aggressively take on his rivals, both real and perceived. His most intense comments came after a scary incident. According to a media report, “Daniel Moreno-Gama traveled from Texas to California with the intent of killing Altman. Before he was arrested outside OpenAI’s headquarters on the early morning of April 10 (2026), Moreno-Gama threw a Molotov cocktail (generally a bottle filled with petrol with a fire at the mouth which, when thrown, blows up) at Altman’s $27-million home.”

The targets of Moreno-Gama included other “AI CEOs,” whose names remain secret.

Initially, as the OpenAI chief told a podcaster, he felt an “adrenaline shock,” which turned into despondency. “I was just, like, you know, there is gonna be more stuff like this, and it is incredibly disheartening. I went through a real depressive cycle about it.

But it is very scary,” Altman added. During the podcast, and a blog post he wrote after the incident, the founder categorically blamed his rivals and media for the extreme public reaction. Although he did not say it specifically, it was clear that he felt that his image is being ruined for no valid reason.

Altman referred to a Shakespearean drama between the companies in our (AI) field” in the blog post, and suggested that a recent longform piece in the New Yorker magazine had made things more dangerous for him. In the podcast, he was more specific and direct. “I think the doomerism talk has not helped. I think the way certain other labs talk about us has not helped.

I think the way Anthropic talks about OpenAI does not help,” he claimed. The rivalry between the two firms started when they were start-ups. OpenAI released ChatGPT before Anthropic’s Claude because the latter was possibly too careful. Over the years, Amodei has blamed Altman for lack of safety, declaring ‘code reds’ regularly, and introducing ads in AI conversations. Altman poked fun at Amodei for the lack of focus on the masses, selling and serving “an expensive product to rich people.”

In reality, the war of words between the two is more about ethics and morality, what AI can and should do, and how to ensure that it serves public interest, and does not emerge as a rogue agent like social media has. Indeed, they refused to hold hands together when India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged several AI-Men to do it as a show of unity.

A long article in the New Yorker magazine supported Amodei’s claims and fears. It raised “significant ethical concerns” related to Altman’s management style, and decision-making process. There was an element of deception as “internal documents suggest that Altman misrepresented facts to the OpenAI’s board and executives.”

There were “misleading claims” related to safety protocols, and safety measures, which “potentially” compromised “ethical standards.” The investigative piece highlighted a long history, going back to the earlier times, of “manipulative behaviour in his leadership style,” which raised questions about trustworthiness, and the possible use of AI.

Despite taking the moral high-ground, and representing himself as a saint or AI-Messiah, Amodei has faced backlash from the media. A recent article in the Vanity Fair magazine poked fun at him, in a non-existent episode and interview that was laced with sarcasm and dark humour. According to the author, his make-believe meeting with the Anthropic founder went like this. For example, Amodei does not have a plan for the humans who may be displaced by AI, but dwells deeply on what it wants Claude, its AI, to do in an ethical manner.

When the interviewer asks Amodei about royalty for content used to train Claude, the founder says that such logic was mentioned when the firm was small. “The ethics got scaled down as valuation scaled up.” Anthropic and OpenAI and the rest build the “thing that creates the crisis, but solving it is someone else’s problem.” Amodei talks about a superintelligence that we cannot predict or control. “But he is building it anyway.”

Finally, the writer clarifies that he never met Amodeil. He fed Claude (AI) reams of content about Amodei, and the former churned out a credible version of an interview in three minutes.

The end result is a horrifying conclusion in a cover article in The Economist magazine, which states that five AI-men, including Musk, Altman, and Amodei, “hold the fate of Western civilisation in their hands.” It adds, “Plenty of people fret that it (AI) might end humanity altogether. Not since the splitting of atom has a new technology created such an angst.” Of these five men, a Ford or Rockefeller may emerge, who will control the fate of nations, and destinies of humans.