Open-and-Shut Case? 👩🏻‍⚖️🤖

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover the latest chapter in the Elon Musk and Sam Altman tragi-comedy, which sees the former suing the latter and OpenAI for up to $150 billion. The public spat between the pair has been unprecedented in its pettiness, but the court case starts today and could rock the AI sector. We also have news on the massive leap in successful social media scams in the US, and Google going big on Anthropic investments. China is blocking a Meta acquisition, and all the latest from 3Advance.

🎬 Our Top Take

🥊🤖 The Battle – Musk and Altman’s Enmity Goes to the Courts

You’ve probably seen social media posts and press reports of Elon Musk and Sam Altman sniping at each other over the past few years. Just yesterday, for example, Musk tweeted, “Scam Altman.” Well, today, things officially get serious as Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, Altman, and others, including Microsoft, goes before the courts. The first thing to say is that it isn’t frivolous, even if the $150 billion that Musk is demanding seems astronomical. But what’s it all about? Musk is arguing that OpenAI, which he co-founded and helped fund, was intended to be a non-profit for the “good of humanity”, basically a counterweight to the for-profit AI labs being developed at the time by companies like Google. Once OpenAI went commercial, including its partnership with Microsoft, Musk argues, that was akin to reneging on the deal that got him involved in the first place. Altman’s argument is, for want of better phrasing, that Musk is lying and knew full well that OpenAI would need to be commercial to survive. We don’t know how this is going to go, but the consensus is that if Musk wins – and it is possible – this could be massively disruptive for OpenAI, not to mention the structures of AI governance. We are well accustomed to Big Tech court cases rumbling on forever, launching appeal after appeal, but this time it’s two tech titans going head-to-head. The repercussions could be massive. #MuskVsAltman Read more here. 

📲 App of the Week: Google

No. We are not trying to sell you the idea that Google is something new and exciting. However, we wanted to highlight it this week for a very cute new feature that Google announced at the Search On event 2026 – Hum to Search. Simply open the Google App or Search Widget on your phone, tap the mic icon, and say, “What’s this song?” and start humming that earworm that has been stuck in your head but for which you can’t quite remember the words or title. It works remarkably well. You’ll need the latest version of the Google App, which you can find here for Android or here for iOS. If, as is likely, you already have it, simply update it on your phone.   

🧐 Stat of the Week: $2.1B

📈📉 Social Media – FTC Reveals 8-Fold Rise in Scams and Fraud

We all know that scams can appear on socials, but it seems that they are getting craftier. The FTC has revealed that Americans lost over $2 billion to social-media scams last year alone, representing an eightfold rise. The biggest culprit? It was Facebook by a large margin, followed by other Meta brands like WhatsApp and Instagram. Is it time to have a serious conversation about accountability? #SocialScams Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

We've been continuing our work with Jeffery Bradley on Self Speak – the affirmation app that lets you reprogram your mind in your own voice. Record a quick sample, and the app clones your tone, pitch, and pace so every daily affirmation comes back to you sounding like you. Our latest updates make it smoother and more personal – smarter affirmations, new subscription options, and onboarding built around habit-building. Because the most powerful voice in your life is your own. Try it on the App Store or Google Play.