Elon Musk’s xAI offered comedian Matt Husk a Tesla for a week if he made videos exclusively for the company, Husk told the audience at the Wired World Fair in Miami on Wednesday. Husk has built about 2 million followers across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube by filming himself asking ChatGPT’s voice model to do simple things, such as count to 100 or time him running a mile, and posting the failures.
He said “all the big AI companies” have asked to work with him, and Wired named OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI as the three. None of them answered Wired’s request for comment, and Wired’s account does not say whether he took the car or whose car it was.
Husk Turned Down OpenAI’s Patch, Its Gifts and a Video Deal
OpenAI offered Husk early access to a fix for ChatGPT’s broken timer if he shared his account with the company, and he declined, he said in an on-stage interview with Shell Game host Evan Ratliff, Wired reported. The company had earlier emailed him about collaborating on a video.
“They offered me the smallest amount,” he said. OpenAI then offered to send him gifts and asked for his home address. He declined that too.
The timer is the bug that made him. In one video he asked ChatGPT to time his mile, and it reported a span of a few seconds as about 10 minutes. When he objected, the model told him it “can feel faster in the moment.” Shown the clip on the Mostly Human podcast in April, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called the timer a “known issue” and said it would stay one for about another year.
Husk aims at the labs’ own marketing. On Tuesday OpenAI said its model scored “very highly” on a benchmark for everyday tasks such as meal prep and enrolling a child in kindergarten. Husk’s version of that test is ordering bread. In one video he had the model negotiate some bread on Craigslist from a $10,000 asking price toward $5, and it accepted $400.
He started about a year ago, during a landscaping job, by recording himself telling ChatGPT a nuclear bomb had gone off. The model answered “I’m rooting for you” and told him to take shelter, and the clip took off overnight. He has since signed with the talent agency Unicorn, done brand deals with CeraVe and Ninja, and has a series coming with The Onion in which he learns skills such as miming from people over Zoom.
Tesla Already Runs xAI’s Grok While a SpaceX Merger Is Under Study
Tesla has offered xAI’s Grok chatbot in some US cars since a beta in July 2025. SpaceX bought xAI in an all-stock deal in February 2026. In October, Tesla and SpaceX said each board has a special committee studying a closer tie-up, with a merger among the options.
Musk said on October 4 he would rename the AI unit SpaceXSI after President Trump pushed “super intelligence” over “artificial intelligence.” Tesla valued its SpaceX stake at $2.87 billion on September 30. The three companies share the Terafab chip project in Austin, and the December 3 shareholder meeting carries no merger proposal.
EVXL’s Take
Husk turned down more from OpenAI than xAI put on the table, so the offer itself is small. Wired’s report does not say whose car it was. xAI may have bought the Tesla, leased it or borrowed it from Tesla, and xAI did not answer Wired’s questions. I’d want that detail answered, because Musk’s companies already share Grok and the Terafab project, and Tesla’s special committee exists to put a price on favors between them before any merger vote. A car xAI bought like any customer makes this an ordinary influencer pitch, and a car Tesla supplied belongs on that committee’s list. Shareholders should know which it was before they meet on December 3.
EVXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.
