Elon Musk slams OpenAI’s ChatGPT secrecy despite Grok’s closed status

The evolution of AI companies’ approaches to open-source development has become a contentious issue, particularly between industry pioneers. Elon Musk’s recent $97.4 billion bid to acquire OpenAI, a company he co-founded in 2015, has highlighted growing tensions around AI transparency and accessibility.

The key conflict: Elon Musk’s criticism of OpenAI for not open-sourcing ChatGPT contrasts sharply with his own company xAI’s practices regarding their Grok AI model.

• Musk’s $97.4 billion bid to acquire OpenAI was rejected by the company’s board
• Throughout 2024, Musk filed four separate legal actions against OpenAI, claiming it had strayed from its open-source mission
• Musk has publicly insisted that OpenAI should return to being an “open source, safety-focused force for good”

Current state of affairs: xAI’s approach to open-source development reveals inconsistencies with Musk’s public stance on AI transparency.

• Only Grok 1, xAI’s initial model, has been open-sourced, released in March 2025, four months after its launch
• Subsequent models, including the recently released Grok 3, remain closed-source
• This practice mirrors the very approach Musk criticizes OpenAI for taking

Technical context: The definition of “open-source” in AI has evolved significantly in recent years, creating new debates about transparency.

• Traditional open-source meant making program source code publicly available
• In AI, companies now often release model “weights” – the parameters determining connections between neural network nodes
• This shift has sparked industry-wide discussions about what constitutes true AI transparency

Market impact: Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s open-source R1 reasoning model has demonstrated the potential advantages of transparent AI development.

• DeepSeek’s model operates at a fraction of the cost compared to major Western AI companies
• This development has challenged the closed-source approach favored by companies like OpenAI and xAI
• The success of open-source models raises questions about the long-term viability of proprietary AI development

Strategic implications: The disconnect between Musk’s public statements and xAI’s practices suggests deeper industry tensions around AI development approaches, with potential consequences for future market dynamics and technological progress in the field.