Prominent Indian-American businessman Vinod Khosla and billionaire Elon Musk had a public war of words over a land battle in California and an allegedly altered image of a sign on a beach. It all started after Elon Musk posted a seemingly AI-generated picture of a beach sign that read “No plebs allowed. Property of Vinod Khosla” – a reference to a 16-year-long legal battle Mr Khosla has undertaken to restrict the use of his private property to access the public Martins Beach, Forbes reported. 

Sharing the image on X on Saturday, Mr Musk claimed that Mr Khosla had put it up on his property. However, the billionaire venture capitalist vehemently denied putting up any such sign and demanded an apology from Mr Musk after his “lie” resulted in negative press for him. “You owe me an apology for spreading falsehoods. I think this post of yours needs a community comment for being a fraudulent photo. I have never put up this sign or anything even remotely like this. I presume it is AI generated but you can verify that,” wrote Mr Khosla. 

Mr Musk then responded to Mr Khosla in his trademark style. “Sorry, I made a sign about you restricting access to a public beach. That was so extremely terrible. Please forgive me,” the billionaire wrote.

Take a look below: 

Sorry I made a sign about you restricting access to a public beach.

That was so extremely terrible.

Please forgive me

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 22, 2024

Notably, according to Forbes, Mr Khosla bought a piece of land in 2008 that previously served as a paid parking lot for Martins Beach south of San Francisco. Mr Khosla has said he no longer wants the privately owned property to be publicly accessible and has been battling with the state over the issue for almost two decades, including a rejected appeal to the Supreme Court in 2018. 

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Elon Musk, however, used this issue to fuel a longstanding dispute between the pair that has seen them trade barbs over the 2024 election, the development of artificial intelligence and immigration issues. 

Previously, the two have also publicly argued about ChatGPT parent OpenAI. Mr Khosla has also called a conversation between Mr Musk and Donald Trump “dumb”. Mr Musk, on the other hand, claimed Mr Khosla was “deranged about Trump”. The billionaires even sparred on X over Mr Trump’s false claims about Haitian immigrants. 

Indian-American billionaire Vinod Khosla took a dig at Elon Musk’s decision to sue OpenAI, calling it “a case of sour grapes”. Mr Khosla, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, suggested the Tesla billionaire did not get into the AI game early enough. Notably, Elon Musk was OpenAI’s largest donor when it was still a non-profit while Mr Khosla was the first venture capitalist to invest in OpenAI’s ChatGPT when the company switched from a non-profit to a private firm in 2019. 

In a tweet, he wrote, ”With @elonmusk feels like a bit of sour grapes in suing @OpenAI for not getting in early enough, not staying committed, and now a rival effort. Like they say if you can’t innovate, litigate and that’s what we have here. Elon of old would be building with us to hit the same goal.”

See the post here:

With @elonmusk , feels like a bit of sour grapes in suing @OpenAI , not getting in early enough, not staying committed and now a rival effort. Like they say if you can’t innovate, litigate and that’s what we have here. Elon of old would would be building with us to hit the same…

— Vinod Khosla (@vkhosla) March 2, 2024

Mr Musk replied: ”Vinod doesn’t know what he is talking about here.”

Vinod doesn’t know what he is talking about here

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 2, 2024

When many pointed out that Musk was one of the earliest investors in OpenAI, Mr Khosla clarified saying, ”Supply chain error on wording. @elonmusk got in early and bailed early when it seemed the going got tough and keeping the mission required real scale money to be able to have any benefit to society.”

Recently, Elon Musk sued OpenAI and its chief executive Sam Altman, among others, accusing them of breaching contractual agreements made when he helped found the ChatGPT-maker in 2015. He alleged that they violated the artificial intelligence startup’s founding mission by putting profit ahead of benefiting humanity. 

The Microsoft-backed company’s focus on seeking profits breaks that agreement, lawyers for Elon Musk said in the lawsuit.

Elon Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but stepped down from the company’s board in 2018. ChatGPT, the chatbot from OpenAI, became the fastest-growing software application in the world within six months of its launch in November 2022. It also sparked the launch of rival chatbots from Microsoft, Alphabet, and a bevy of startups that tapped the hype to secure billions in funding.