Elon musk and the xAI emblem.
Vincent Feuray | Afp | Getty Pictures
Elon Musk on Monday threatened Apple with authorized motion over alleged antitrust violations associated to rankings of the Grok AI chatbot app, which is owned by his synthetic intelligence startup xAI.
“Apple is behaving in a fashion that makes it unimaginable for any AI firm apart from OpenAI to achieve #1 within the App Retailer, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation. xAI will take instant authorized motion,” Musk wrote in a submit on social media platform X.
Apple didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for remark.
“Why do you refuse to place both X or Grok in your ‘Should Have’ part when X is the #1 information app on the planet and Grok is #5 amongst all apps? Are you enjoying politics?” Musk mentioned in one other submit.
Apple final 12 months tied up with OpenAI to combine ChatGPT into its iPhone, iPad, Mac laptop computer and desktop merchandise. Musk at the moment had mentioned that “If Apple integrates OpenAI on the OS degree, then Apple units will likely be banned at my firms. That’s an unacceptable safety violation.”
CNBC confirmed that ChatGPT was ranked No. 1 within the prime free apps part of the American iOS retailer, and was the one AI chatbot in Apple’s “Should-Have Apps” part.
Previous to his authorized threats in opposition to Apple, Musk had celebrated Grok surpassing Google because the fifth prime free app on the App Retailer.
OpenAI on Thursday introduced GPT-5, its newest and most superior large-scale AI mannequin, following xAI’s launch of its latest chatbot, Grok 4, final month.
Musk has an ongoing feud with ChatGPT maker OpenAI which he co-founded in 2015. The billionaire stepped down from its board in 2018, 4 years after saying that AI was “doubtlessly extra harmful than nukes.”
He’s now suing the Microsoft-backed startup, and its CEO Sam Altman, alleging they deserted OpenAI’s founding mission to develop synthetic intelligence “for the advantage of humanity broadly.”
That is additionally not the primary time Apple has been challenged on antitrust grounds. In a landmark case, the Division of Justice final 12 months sued the corporate over fees of operating an iPhone ecosystem monopoly.
In June, a panel of judges additionally denied an emergency utility from Apple to halt the adjustments to its App Retailer ensuing from a ruling that the corporate may not cost a fee on cost hyperlinks inside its apps, nor inform builders how the hyperlinks ought to look.
— CNBC’s Kif Leswing contributed to this story.
