Elon Musk’s xAI filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple Inc. and OpenAI on Monday, claiming the ChatGPT originator and iPhone maker engaged in an “anticompetitive scheme” to stifle competition in artificial intelligence (AI).
The 61-page complaint filed in Texas federal court accused Apple’s App Store of “deprioritizing” rival chatbots and “super” apps that include Musk’s Grok and X. Apple, it claims, “force[s]” consumers and companies to use ChatGPT as their default chatbot app when enabling Apple Intelligence. “Apple and OpenAI have locked up markets to maintain their monopolies and prevent innovators like X and xAI from competing,” the suit said.
“This is a tale of two monopolists joining forces to ensure their continued dominance in a world rapidly driven by the most powerful technology humanity has ever created: artificial intelligence,” the lawsuit asserts.
Last year, Apple teamed with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into iPhone, iPad, MacBooks and desktop products.
An OpenAI spokesperson said the filing is “consistent with Mr. Musk’s ongoing pattern of harassment” following a series of legal actions against OpenAI, which he helped co-found in late 2015. Musk abruptly bolted in 2018 because of disagreements over the company’s direction.
Apple was not immediately available for comment.
James Bailey, a business professor at George Washington University, said there is “some truth” about Musk’s lawsuit – Apple has long been guilty of favored vendors and Open AI offers one platform for multiple, interlinked sources.
“What Apple and AI are doing does pose a threat to Musk’s budding business. But like all oligarchs, as opposed to innovating and strategizing, Musk sues, Bailey said in an email. “It’s a classic negotiation tactic; increasing the other parties’ costs so as to slow their progress while his own interest’s progress.”
The latest Musk lawsuit against OpenAI comes two weeks ago after he charged Apple with unfairly favoring OpenAI and ChatGPT in the iPhone’s App Store rankings for top AI apps.
Following Musk’s threat, his nemesis OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, “This is a remarkable claim given what I have heard alleged that Elon does to manipulate X to benefit himself and his own companies and harm his competitors and people he doesn’t like.”
At the time, Apple said its App Store was designed to be “fair and free of bias,” and that the company features “thousands of apps.”
Last year, Musk sued Altman and OpenAI, claiming breach of contract by putting commercial interests ahead of its initial intention to develop AI “for the benefit of humanity broadly.” In a countersuit, OpenAI said Musk and xAI engaged in harassment through legal actions, attacks on social-media platform X and through the press, as well as through a “sham bid” to acquire OpenAI for nearly $100 billion in a scheme to undermine the company’s business relationships.
“Musk has escalated the battle [in his latest lawsuit]. This is not only a contest between products – ChatGPT vs. Grok – but between platforms, where control of data and distribution may determine where future value is rewarded and how new innovations emerge,” Rob Lalka, a professor of practice at Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business, said in an email.
