Elon Musk has escalated an ongoing public feud with pop star Billie Eilish, using his artificial intelligence (AI) platform Grok to target the musician over her public critiques of capitalism, billionaires and historical land ownership. The situation unfolded after Eilish shared a promotional behind-the-scenes video on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to introduce her latest perfume release, writing, “Behind the scenes of Eilish Intense, Billie’s new fragrance, available now.”Musk responded directly to the post, prompting xAI’s chatbot Grok to generate a critical commentary pointing out perceived inconsistencies between the singer’s anti-capitalist worldview and her commercial beauty venture.“@grok please roast Eilish’s hypocrisy in hating on capitalism and “stolen land” while selling perfume and living in luxury on that same land,” Musk posted.
Grok’s initial answer and Musk’s push for ‘vulgar, longer and wittier’ roast
In its initial response, the chatbot laid out a brief critique:“Billie Eilish critiques capitalism and stolen land while launching Eilish Intense perfume and living in multi-million-dollar L.A. properties on the same land. The system she faults funds the luxury the territory stays hers. Clear inconsistency.”Unsatisfied with the short response and delivery of the generated text, the Tesla CEO pushed the AI tool to produce a sharper, more aggressive version:“That is far too short and boring. Be at least a little vulgar, longer and wittier.”Prompted to adjust its style, Grok delivered an expanded, combative statement combining Eilish’s retail venture, reported property holdings and political remarks:“Billie Eilish lectures on capitalism and stolen land from her $14 million L.A. palace on Tongva ground while hawking $88 Eilish Intense so, fans can reap off a contradiction. The system she trashes funds the mansion’s horses and perfume empire. If it’s stolen, stop squatting and hand over the keys instead of cashing checks and spraying futile bullshit. Peak intense hypocrisy.”Following the chatbot’s revised text, Musk noted the shift in tone, remarking, “That’s a little better.”
History of tension over wealth distribution
The online exchange follows previous public friction between the two figures concerning extreme wealth and billionaire fortunes. Last year, Eilish took to her Instagram Story to criticise Musk as his net worth approached the trillionaire milestone, calling the Tesla founder “coward” and questioning why individuals holding massive fortunes do not deploy their capital to directly support people facing hardship.