Musk threatens to ban Apple at his firms over OpenAI integration

Tech CEO Elon Musk said he would ban employees of his companies from using Apple devices if the tech giant goes forward with a plan to launch an artificial intelligence (AI) feature announced Monday.

Apple said its “Intelligence” feature, which would integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT, will personalize a phone to the user’s needs and add functionality. 

“If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, then Apple devices will be banned at my companies. That is an unacceptable security violation,” Musk wrote on his social media platform X.

Musk, who leads X, car manufacturer Tesla and space firm SpaceX, launched his own artificial intelligence venture xAI last year. The OpenAI competitor claimed it raised $6 billion last month at an $18 billion valuation.

The threat expands Musk’s feud with OpenAI, which he co-founded but is no longer affiliated with. Musk’s rivalry became a legal battle in March when he sued the company and its leader, Sam Altman, alleging they broke a contract in which Altman promised to develop AI for the benefit of humanity. That legal challenge sparked the founding of xAI, Musk later said.

Through Apple Intelligence, users will be able to prioritize their notifications or help rewrite language across apps, including in emails, notes or messages, the company announced Monday.

The feature will be included as part of the launch of the new iOS18, as well as updates coming to operating systems for the Mac and iPad, which will be released in the fall.

ChatGPT access will be baked into its Siri voice assistant, Apple said, and will be accessible on other of the company’s devices.

xAI launched its own text-generating AI model as a rival to ChatGPT, named Grok, earlier this year.