Altman’s World Looks to Challenge X in Everything App Arena

The Elon Musk/Sam Altman rivalry could soon extend beyond the confines of artificial intelligence (AI).

That’s because World — Altman’s other, non-OpenAI startup — is reportedly working on a super app that would eventually compete with Musk’s X, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Friday (March 7).

Writing about the company’s efforts, WSJ’s Christopher Mims said that Altman and World CEO Alex Blania foresee a time when the startup’s ocular scanning technology will be ubiquitous. The reason? AI agents will be everywhere, and so humanlike that people will need to constantly prove they’re, well, human.

To speed the adoption of this technology, the report said, World recently debuted a mini app store within its app, which is available for iPhones and Android devices. The report noted that this is part of a larger effort to launch an “everything app,” which World says will eventually put them in direct competition with Musk’s X as it moves into everything app territory.

“I think it will take a while until we seriously collide,” Blania said, “given that X is primarily now a social network.”

X still hasn’t launched its payment system, and World hasn’t had a proper U.S. debut. But within around 12 months, Blania believes the two apps will begin to compete.

“If so, it would be a notable development in part because making everything apps work in the West has proved extremely difficult,” Mims argued. “The bottom line is that, for most people with an Android phone or iPhone who haven’t grown up in the tech ecosystems of Asia, those app stores already offer the versatility and flexibility that everything apps do.”

PYMNTS wrote recently about X’s everything app efforts following the company’s collaboration with Visa. With that partnership, X will use Visa Direct to move funds into X Money wallets, which will be connected to debit cards and bank accounts.

That report said the “significant cross-pollination in the making” with the deal, considering X’s 200 million users and Visa’s growing debit card business.

Altman and Musk were both involved in the founding of OpenAI before Musk’s departure in 2015. Since then, the Tesla owner has accused OpenAI of moving away from its nonprofit roots, and has sued the company to prevent its switch to a for-profit entity.

Musk has also offered $97.4 billion for the nonprofit entity, though the company’s board and Altman have rejected that deal.