Elon Musk says he was wrong about Anthropic, now calls the AI rival the 'leader'

Oh, marvellous. The man who once branded Anthropic 'hypocritical' and 'woke' has now, via an X post on Thursday, declared them a 'leader'. This is the same Elon Musk who's been busy launching Grok models and complaining about 'woke AI' at every turn. But apparently, when the competition gets good enough, principles are as flexible as a Tesla's panel gaps. One imagines the switch was thrown the moment Anthropic started eating SpaceXAI's lunch in benchmarks—or maybe when a potential acquisition target looked suddenly more attractive. Either way, it's a masterclass in selective amnesia.

Musk didn't offer any reasoning for the about-face, because why would he? In the AI world, you don't need facts—you need vibes. The same man who sued OpenAI for abandoning its non-profit mission now praises a rival that's arguably even more secretive. The term 'leader' is conveniently vague: does it mean best model, best safety protocols, or best at making Musk look like he's above petty rivalries? Probably the latter, given his track record of feuding on Twitter.

What's genuinely amusing is that this reversal comes with no apology for the earlier name-calling, no acknowledgment that his own models might be catching up. Just a bald 'I was wrong' that smells less of humility and more of strategic positioning. In the end, Musk's opinion on Anthropic is worth exactly as much as his last tweet—which is to say, it'll flip again the moment Claude says something he doesn't like. But hey, at least the X engagement was good.