Elon Musk’s Displeasure Over Apple’s New Partnership with OpenAI: A Security Concern and a Rivalry Revisited
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X, has expressed his discontent towards Apple’s recent partnership with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.
In a post on X, Musk threatened to ban Apple devices at his companies if the iPhone manufacturer proceeds with its announced plans to integrate OpenAI’s technology at the operating system level.
Musk perceives this potential integration as an unacceptable security violation. He further stated that visitors would be required to leave their Apple devices at the entrance, enclosed in Faraday cages, to prevent electromagnetic waves from penetrating. ‘Apple has no clue what’s actually going on once they hand your data over to OpenAI,’ Musk warned in a separate post. ‘They’re selling you down the river.’
Apple unveiled its partnership with OpenAI at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, aiming to bring generative artificial intelligence tools to Apple products. Under the new ‘Apple Intelligence’ system, AI will enhance Siri’s voice assistant and provide more personalized tools to users. ChatGPT’s technology will support some of these new features, enabling users to direct queries to the AI model via their Apple devices.
Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president, confirmed the integration of ChatGPT into Apple’s operating systems for iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers, stating that it would be available later this year.
Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI in 2015, now heads a rival firm called xAI. His relationship with OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, has been contentious. Musk is currently suing both for allegedly breaching OpenAI’s founding agreement and deviating from its nonprofit mission. OpenAI has dismissed these claims as ‘frivolous,’ ‘extraordinary,’ and ‘a fiction.’
Musk’s history of broken promises and threats raises questions about the feasibility of his ban on Apple devices or even a broader ban on other brands. Google and Samsung have already integrated new AI features into their devices, while Microsoft, OpenAI’s biggest investor, announced three weeks ago that it would integrate AI features directly into Windows.
Catherine Flick, a professor of ethics and games technology at Staffordshire University, suggested that Apple’s AI approach is more privacy-conscious than others, as it aims to process as much data on the device as possible and explicitly asks users before sending information to OpenAI.
Musk’s employees may face limited options if he decides to ban rival AI or even OpenAI from his companies. However, Microsoft, under pressure from privacy concerns, announced that it would turn off some AI features by default.
Apple’s partnership with OpenAI could help the iPhone maker close the innovation gap and accelerate its move into the generative AI technology sector, which holds significant potential. ‘This is a pivotal moment for Apple, which has faced criticism for its lack of innovation recently,’ Matt Britzman, an equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, wrote in a note. ‘Integrating a third-party tool like ChatGPT marks a significant step forward, while leaving room for internal model development at lower costs in the future.’
Despite the controversy, Apple’s partnership with OpenAI represents a significant stride in the tech industry’s ongoing race to integrate advanced AI technologies into everyday consumer products. The full implications of this collaboration remain to be seen, as the industry continues to grapple with the ethical, privacy, and technological challenges posed by AI.
