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Yesterday, The Information reported that Musk's xAI was considering acquiring Character AI to find more ways to improve the Grok AI model. Just a few hours after the report was released, it was "quickly refuted" by Musk himself.

According to previous rumors, both Meta and xAI attempted to work closely with Character AI, but both failed.

Interestingly, Musk and Zuckerberg, who had their eyes on the same company, almost agreed to go public again recently.

Last Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the U.S. Capitol, and Musk went to meet him. A "mouth replacement" reporter asked the question that everyone was thinking: "Do you remember the fight with Zuckerberg on the playground?" Normal people would pretend not to hear it, but Silicon Valley's "fight king" was not afraid at all.

Musk shouted: "I am willing to fight him anywhere, at any time, under any rules."

Zuckerberg retorted: "We really have to do this again?"

As early as last year, Zuckerberg said that he only wanted to know the exact time of the fight, after all, Musk said he had to go for surgery first. But two days later, Musk said on X: "Zuck is a coward."

Excuse me, who is the real chicken?

Real business wars often subvert people's imagination with the most primitive "close combat".

Zuckerberg knows Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and won a gold medal and a silver medal in his first competition. He is the best fighter among the rich and the richest fighter among the rich. But as the saying goes, "weight is the key to fighting", Musk, a "heavyweight fighter" and "South African street fighter", designed his "ultimate move" himself - the walrus press. That is, he presses the opponent tightly under him.

Last year, the betting platform Oddspedia calculated that Zuckerberg had an 83% chance of winning; while the betting company Bovad gave Musk odds of -150 and Zuckerberg +110. In the end, this world-renowned playground fight ended with "much ado about nothing", which made people say it was too unsatisfying! Rumor has it that "Taurus" Zuckerberg thought "Cancer" Musk was too slow and simply stopped the fight. Cancer man "stereotype" +1

I am reminded of what Kara Swisher, a well-known American technology journalist, wrote in her memoir Burn Book: Zuckerberg is "the most dangerous" and Musk is "the most disappointing."

So why do these two "annoying guys" hate each other so much? Shidao found that the account started in 2016, and there have been "new hatreds and old grudges" almost every year since then...until last year, when a big melon was finally revealed.

What kind of verbal battles did the Silicon Valley "two horses" have over the years? One year later, have they calmed down? Hurry up and sit on your stools and start to enjoy the fun.

1. Looking back, it is hard to clear up the bad debts of the past 7 years

The origin of the 2016 feud: SpaceX rocket "Mercury retrograde" blew up Facebook satellite

SpaceX tests its Falcon 9 rocket at its launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in September 2016.

Then the rocket exploded, taking away the AMOS-6 satellite that Facebook was preparing to give to the people of Africa, resulting in a direct loss of $200 million.

This was the second major failure for SpaceX, and Musk's net worth shrank by $778 million that day.

Others might pretend to comfort him, but Zuckerberg didn't want to create some "false tug-of-war" with Musk.

He posted: I am in Africa. I heard that SpaceX blew up the satellite. I am extremely disappointed. In response to the concerns of enthusiastic netizens, Zuckerberg replied: Money is not a problem. The key is that it has delayed our mission of "connecting humanity"!

At the time, Musk, the president of SpaceX and others shared the view that what Zuckerberg published and the timing of its release essentially showed that "he is an asshole."

Two years later, Musk responded to journalist Kerry Flynn: "Yes, it was my fault because I was stupid. However, I did give them one free launch as compensation, and I think they were insured at the time."

Differences in opinion in 2017: Zuckerberg mocks Musk for being irresponsible, Musk responds that he does not understand AI

Musk believes that the AI ​​era will create "an immortal dictator from whom humans will never be able to escape" and that AI is more dangerous than nuclear weapons.

During a Facebook Live, an audience member asked Zuckerberg what he thought.

Zuckerberg was excited: You asked the right person. I have a lot of opinions. "Especially about AI, I am very optimistic. Those doomsayers who are pessimistic... I don't understand what they are thinking. This is really negative and quite irresponsible."

This completely irritated Hard Stone. Musk responded: "I talked to Zuckerberg about this, and he has a very limited understanding of the subject."

Taking the initiative to stir up trouble in 2018 - Facebook scandal, Musk deleted the page overnight

In March 2018, the media revealed that Cambridge Analytica, a data analysis company serving Trump, "stole" 87 million Facebook user data - personal information and contact information - through a paid psychological test app.

This move used both the Heavenly Sword and the Dragon Saber, and "psychometric data + social network data" helped Trump to be crowned successfully.

Before the incident, Facebook had also been plagued by turmoil, including indirectly leading to the spread of a large amount of false information by Russia during the US presidential election.

This time, Musk turned the tables with the hatred of being "kicked when he was down" two years ago.

WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton tweeted: "It is time. #deletefacebook."

Musk chimed in: "What's Facebook?"

Then the SpaceX and Tesla Facebook pages disappeared.

Musk added: "I didn't know SpaceX had a Facebook. Tesla did, but this page is so boring."

Finally, he said: This is not a "political statement", I just think Facebook is scary, sorry!

Small fights in 2020 - Musk takes the initiative to attack Facebook

After a year of silence, Facebook entered a turbulent period. After the Libra digital currency was rejected, Facebook once again faced tax collection from the IRS, as high as $9 billion.

Amid the chaos, actor Sacha Baron Cohen tweeted: Why regulators allow Zuckerberg to "control the information seen by 2.5 billion people."

Musk added: Facebook is lame, delete it quickly.

The Battle for the Metaverse in 2021—Should the TV be placed in front of your eyes or in your brain?

This year, Zuckerberg announced his entry into the Metaverse in a high-profile manner; in October, Facebook was officially renamed Meta.

To some extent, Facebook is really gone, Musk's wish has come true +1

Zuckerberg said: "In the future, Meta will make efforts in various fields such as social networking, games, work, and education, allowing users to enter this virtual new world to complete the closed loop of work, entertainment, social networking, and consumption."

Musk responded in the interview: "Are you sure you can put a TV up to your nose?"

When the host mentioned that the metaverse is "dangerous", Musk felt that it was "far from qualified" - "People don't want to leave the real world forever, and this kind of thing will not happen."

After all, our Ma Ge’s ambition is to implant television into the brain.

Zuckerberg: I ​​don’t think people are willing to drill their heads open to use VR/AR.

In January 2021, after the riots at the U.S. Capitol, Musk shared an emoticon suggesting that it was Facebook's fault, "This is what's called the domino effect."

The smallest tile, the domino that caused the others to fall, was labeled "Rating Site for Women on Campus," a reference to Facebook. The largest tile was a post by New York Times reporter Leibovich that read, "The Capitol appears to be controlled by a man wearing a Viking hat."

Musk also criticized Meta's data sharing during the year. After Meta-owned WhatsApp announced that it would force users to share personal data with Facebook, Musk tweeted another meme about Facebook and mentioned that the company was "spying" on users.

Who is a coward in 2023? - Musk: My mom doesn't let me fight

The best part is finally here!

The night before the fight:

After Musk acquired Twitter in 2012, the "friendship" between the two became even more intense.

At the Vancouver TED conference, chairman Chris Anderson asked Musk whether there was a conflict of interest in acquiring the platform as the world's richest man and a Twitter influencer.

Musk's move of "diverting trouble away" is: Zuckerberg owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and the shareholding structure is strong enough to ensure that "Zuckerberg XIV" can still sit on the throne.

He added: "I wouldn't do that on Twitter."

Of course not, after all, Twitter was renamed X.

The fight happened:

In the spring and summer of 2023, Zuckerberg revealed that Meta would launch a competitor to Twitter and create a "rational Twitter". As for Twitter, I thought there were 1 billion people using it.

Musk responded: "The whole earth is clamoring to surrender to Zuckerberg, there is no other choice." He then wrote: "Zuck is mine" and attached a tongue-out emoji.

Netizens were watching the fun and said: "Be careful, he knows jiu-jitsu now."

Musk: "If he can, I'm going to have a cage fight with him."

Zuckerberg: "Send me the address." In response, Meta spokesperson Iska Saric said he was not joking.

So Musk set the venue for the competition in the "Octagon" in Las Vegas.

UFC President Dana White was delighted: If they are serious, we will set up a pay-per-view event!

Upon hearing the news, Musk’s biological mother Maye Musk could no longer sit still: My dear son, stop now.

"Good boy" Musk experienced "Mom, leave me alone" several times, but finally calmed down.

Then there’s the cowardly fight at the beginning.

2. Today, two open source warriors are facing foreign enemies

But it must be said that the battle between Musk and Zuckerberg can be so successful because they have some commonalities in certain aspects.

In May this year, the "two horses" started fighting again.

These two guys are eyeing the same piece of fat meat - the chatbot Character.AI

Both Meta and xAI have had early discussions with Character.AI, primarily involving research-level collaborations such as model development and pre-training.

On the one hand, social media platforms hold massive amounts of data; on the other hand, social media platforms also have unique needs for customized chat AI.

Meta previously said it was integrating AI chatbots into its Facebook, Instagram and other platforms, including some "cosplay celebrities" robots. At the same time, xAI developed the chatbot Grok for paid subscribers of the X platform.

Ultimately, these talks did not result in any deal. However, in July, Character.AI was reported to be short of funds and was likely to be sold. The buyer could be one of xAI and Meta.

In addition, the "open source" representatives Musk and Zuckerberg have found a common enemy - OpenAI.

Musk is one of the co-founders of OpenAI and left the OpenAI board in 2018.

In 2019, OpenAI turned to Microsoft and clung to its father Microsoft, and then transformed from a "small white flower" non-profit organization into the current "money-making devil".

In March this year, Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the company of deviating from its original intention of benefiting humanity in pursuit of commercial success.

Crime 1: Closing the source code resulted in profits going to OpenAI and Microsoft rather than the public;

Charge 2: OpenAI will only maintain Microsoft's interests, which means it will pose a risk to all of humanity;

Charge three: Sam Altman and Microsoft used deception and intimidation to force their opponents to surrender;

Charge four: OpenAI used a mixed structure of non-profit organizations and for-profit subsidiaries to defraud taxpayers’ money in its business model.

Musk dropped the lawsuit in June, a day after he criticized OpenAI and its new partnership with Apple.

As a leading figure in the open source camp, Zuckerberg seemed to agree with Musk's accusations against OpenAI and joked that OpenAI was not open.

In response, Musk rarely praised Zuckerberg.

On July 23, Meta released its latest Llama 3.1, saying that the model is superior to GPT-4o in some tasks, and it is open source and free to the public.

Musk: "This is impressive, and Zuckerberg should really be praised for open source."

3. Conclusion

The "two horses" of Silicon Valley have only hatred, no love.

Last June, WSJ mentioned: An insider revealed that for a long time, Zuckerberg had been eager to gain the same dazzling public recognition as Musk, while Musk was afraid of Zuckerberg's early success at Facebook.

Now, coupled with their firm stance on open source, one can instantly imagine a scenario in which "enemies turn into true love."

But the reality is not romantic.

Currently, X has 600 million monthly active users, and Threads has over 175 million. Twitter has been established for 18 years, X is also 2 years old, and Threads has just celebrated its first birthday.

There will be many wars waiting for this pair of enemies in the future.

It has to be said that Musk is simply the "God of War in Silicon Valley". The bigwigs who have battled with him include but are not limited to Bill Gates, Bezos, Larry Page, Sam Altman, and Apple.

Recently, Musk expanded his quarreling business to the political arena and had a verbal battle with California Governor Newsom, with whom he used to be good brothers.