Overview
In the world of tech giants, few rivalries are as fascinating as the ongoing grudge that seems to be taking place between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. Although the feud between the pair has been going on for several years, things seem to have been heating up over the past few weeks, and many are wondering whether the drama is set to boil over soon.
Indeed, both Zuckerberg and Musk have recently claimed that they would be happy to take their dispute out of the digital arena and into a mixed martial arts Octagon for a physical battle. However, are these public outbursts simply symptoms of the egos of two of the world’s wealthiest men, or could we genuinely see them settle their differences inside a cage?
Artificial Intelligence
To understand how things came to be so tense between Zuckerberg and Musk, we need to go back to 2016, which is where it all seems to have started. Back then, we were starting to see more and more people talking online about the possibilities of artificial intelligence, and as always seems to be the case, there were large groups of divided people – those who were for it and those who were against it.
What appears to have set the ball rolling in this feud was the fact that Musk made a speech to a group of US governors, within which he told them that artificial intelligence needed to be heavily regulated. Of course, this sounds reasonable enough, but he also went on to reference the classic Terminator-style robot vs. human war, and this was enough to irritate Zuckerberg. In response, the Facebook founder publicly called Musk irresponsible and claimed he was a naysayer who was trying to drum up doomsday scenarios.
Exploding Rocket
The next incident between the two billionaires again occurred in 2016. At the time, Zuckerberg was planning to provide free satellite internet to sub-Saharan Africa. The idea here was that giving lots of people free internet in these locations would help to increase Facebook’s user base.
A satellite, which was paid for by Facebook, needed to be sent into space to achieve this goal. Of course, this meant that they needed a rocket to send it there. Yes, you guessed it, that rocket was a Falcon 9 – owned by Musk’s SpaceX. Unfortunately, the satellite didn’t make it into space because the Falcon 9 rocket that was carrying it blew up on the launch pad, destroying it.
It’s no surprise that Zuckerberg wasn’t happy about this. He claimed that he was deeply disappointed that SpaceX’s launch failure had destroyed their satellite, which so many people would have benefited from. Musk’s response didn’t materialize until 2018 when he noted that SpaceX gave them a free launch. He also casually mentioned that he thought Facebook had some kind of insurance, insinuating that he didn’t understand why Zuckerberg was causing such a fuss.
Deleted Facebook Pages
Musk seemed intent on continuing to add flames to the fire in 2018 by making it publicly known that he was going to delete the Facebook pages of SpaceX and Tesla. In typical Musk style, however, he didn’t just delete them privately. He went on to claim that the pages looked “lame” on that platform anyway.
If you thought Musk would leave it there and walk away, you’d be wrong. He then went on to further slam Facebook by stating that he just doesn’t like the platform and it gives him “the willies”.
Threads
So, we’ve arrived at the latest issue between Zuckerberg and Musk, and this time, it relates to the newly launched app, Threads, which is part of Meta – Zuckerberg’s company. Musk has publicly criticized Threads by suggesting that it is a copy of Twitter and has even gone as far as to claim that Meta hired former Twitter employees to help them copy elements of the app. Musk also seems to have lost the plot a little here because he’s now gone on to suggest that he and Zuckerberg have a real-life body part measuring contest – yes, that part.
Potential Cage Fight
As you can see, there’s no love lost between Zuckerberg and Musk. This duo has been going back and forth for years. However, we’ve now reached a point where it could spill over into a physical altercation – a cage fight.
Yes, that’s where we’re at with this feud. Musk started this latest drama by suggesting that he was “up for a cage fight” with Zuckerberg, who then responded by posting, “Send me location”.
However, do we expect this fight to take place? At first, it seemed like it was going to be a case of all talk, no action. Since then, though, there have been rumblings of this fight being a genuine possibility. Dana White, president of the UFC, has been excited about the possibility of making this happen under the organization’s production. Why wouldn’t he? This would be a PPV event that would bring in millions of viewers. Just imagine the sponsorships that would take place. Companies from the biggest tech firms, sports businesses, and betting operators that run the best sweepstakes casinos would all want a piece of the action.
Furthermore, both Musk and Zuckerberg appear to be training for the fight. Musk has asked for help from legendary UFC fighter Georges St-Pierre, whereas Zuckerberg has been pictured looking ripped and training with world-class current UFC fighters Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski.
Fight Reaction
There has been lots of discussion taking place on social media about this potential fight. Of course, with these characters being such huge names in the tech world, there are large groups of people supporting both sides. What’s interesting is that current MMA fighters seem to be enjoying the back-and-forth. UFC Heavyweight Champion, Jon Jones, has gone on to state that he is “Team Zuck” and would love to be his training partner.
Conclusion
Whether this fight goes ahead remains to be seen, but it would certainly be an entertaining watch. The way that both Zuckerberg and Musk seem to be training for the fight suggests that there is a possibility of it happening. However, both have been known to be trolls online at times, so there’s always the chance that they have no intention of genuinely going through with it.
