Biggest Tech Bro Fights of the Year

• Tech titans are working hard this year.
• In June, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk threatened to take on their rivalry in the ring.
• From physical battles to online snipes, here are the best battles of the year.

Silicon Valley’s tech bros have had quite the year.

Whether it’s technological advancements or chaotic corporate takeovers, all eyes are on big tech companies and the men pulling the strings.

However, some of them may not seem to play well.

From Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg throwing punches at each other to AI godfathers, tech titans haven’t kept their arguments behind closed doors this year.

Here’s a roundup of some of the best fights we’ve seen.

Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg

It was the fight that never was.

In June, social media rivals Musk and Zuckerberg threatened to make their business a personal beef and fight it out in the ring. UFC president Dana White said the pair are “dead serious” about a potential fight.

Sportsbooks also released a handful of fictitious betting lines.

Still, despite the media circus and Musk’s offer to drive to Zuckerberg’s house, the two never got beyond an online snap.

The beef seems to have been settled so it’s unlikely we’ll see the pair in the ring — or the Colosseum — anytime soon.

AI Godfathers

AI has been an issue on everyone’s mind this year.

Although serious concerns about the potential dangers of this technology have been raised by some prominent experts in the field, not all of them can agree on what we should be concerned about.

The debate about the existential dangers of AI came to a head later this year among some of the tech’s founding members.

Meta’s AI chief Yann Likon took to social media to blame AI’s founders, along with some of his former colleagues. “Fear mongering.” Lechon then called fellow Touring Award winners Jeffrey Hinton and Yoshua. Benjio in another post.

In response to Hinton, who has said AI is at risk of extinction, LeCun wrote on X: “You and Joshua are unwittingly helping those who want to keep AI research and development under lock and key. want and are protecting their business by banning open research. source code, and the open access model.”

In an interview with Business Insider, Bengio hit back at LeCun, saying the meta chief was too dismissive of the risks. The stakes are too high to ignore the dangers of AI extinction, he said.

Satya Nadella and Google

Earlier this year, it was pitting Satya Nadella against arch-rival Google.

Buoyed by the success of OpenAI and the company’s quick integration into Microsoft’s search engine Bing, Nadella hoped to expand Google Search.

In a February interview with The Verge, the normally cool Nadella called Google the “800-pound gorilla” in search.

He said: “And I hope that, with our innovation, they will definitely want to come out and show that they can dance. And I want people to know that we have them. It’s forced to dance, and I think it’s going to be a great day.”

Google certainly got a kick out of Microsoft’s investment in Buzzy AI Lab. ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022 reportedly prompted the tech giant to commit to a code read and pump resources into AI development.

The two tech companies are still rolling out AI products at a rapid pace, but Microsoft’s AI-powered Bing has struggled to keep users away from Google Search at a significant rate.

Sam Altman and Elon Musk

This year, Sam Altman became the face of AI when OpenAI’s ChatGPT started an AI arms race among tech companies.

Never one to be outdone, fellow OpenAI cofounder Musk launched into some public banter about the company and its flagship product.

Altman remained relatively cool with the billionaire’s criticism. In March, Altman called Musk a “hero,” but acknowledged that the Tesla CEO was “openly attacking” his company online.

Altman said he understands some of Musk’s concerns about AI security but wishes Musk would do more to acknowledge the work OpenAI is doing to address those concerns.