Elon Musk does not agree with companies who want employees to use in-house AI models
Elon Musk has clarified that Tesla employees are not forced to use his company's AI model, Grok, if competing products like Claude or ChatGPT perform better for specific tasks. This follows reports of a spending cap on third-party AI tools and internal debates regarding the performance of in-house versus external models.
Why it matters
The story highlights the ongoing corporate struggle to balance proprietary AI development with the practical need for high-performing software tools.
Elon Musk has hit back at a report which claimed that the tech billionaire has told the Tesla staff to switch to Grok 4.5, a model he admits is worse. He has clarified that he does not force his employees to use his own software blindly if a competitor's product performs better.The clarification comes after an internal memo leaked (via The Information) from Tesla last week, showing that the electric vehicle maker had placed a strict $200 weekly cap on employee spending for third-party AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude.Taking to his social media platform, X, Musk posted: “I just asked Tesla & SpaceX to try out Grok 4.5 to see if it solves their task, not use it no matter what!
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