OpenAI’s ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer application in history in the months following its launch in late 2022. Musk’s xAI acquired X that year for $US33 billion ($50.9 billion) to enhance its chatbot training capabilities. Musk has also integrated the Grok chatbot into vehicles made by his electric automobile company, Tesla. xAI was launched less than two years ago and competes with Microsoft-backed OpenAI as well as with Chinese startup DeepSeek.
The complaint portrays Apple as a company that views AI as an “existential threat” to its future success, prompting it to collude with OpenAI in an attempt to protect the iPhone franchise that has long been its biggest moneymaker.
Some of the allegations accusing Apple of trying to shield the iPhone from do-everything “super apps,” such as the one Musk has long been trying to create with X, echo an antitrust lawsuit filed against Apple last year by the US Department of Justice.
The double-barrelled legal attack weaves together several recently unfolding narratives to recast a year-old partnership between Apple and OpenAI as a veiled conspiracy to stifle competition in AI.Credit: Bloomberg
OpenAI has countered with a lawsuit against Musk accusing him of harassment – an allegation that the company cited in its response to Monday’s antitrust lawsuit. “This latest filing is consistent with Mr Musk’s ongoing pattern of harassment,” OpenAI said in a statement.
Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The crux of the lawsuit revolves around Apple’s decision to use ChatGPT as an AI-powered “answer engine” on the iPhone when the built-in technology on its device couldn’t satisfy user needs. The partnership announced last year was part of Apple’s late entry into the AI race that was supposed to be powered mostly by its own on-device technology, but the company still hasn’t been able to deliver on all its promises.
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Apple’s own AI shortcomings may be helping drive more usage of ChatGPT on the iPhone, providing OpenAI with invaluable data that’s unavailable to Grok and other would-be competitors because it’s currently an exclusive partnership.
The alliance has provided Apple with an incentive to improperly elevate ChatGPT in the AI rankings of the iPhone’s app store, the lawsuit alleges. Other AI apps from DeepSeek and Perplexity have periodically reached the top spot in the Apple app store’s AI rankings in at least some parts of the world since Apple announced its deal with ChatGPT.
The lawsuit doesn’t mention the potential threat that ChatGPT could also pose to Apple and the iPhone’s future popularity. As part of its expansion efforts, OpenAI recruited former Apple designer Jony Ive to oversee a project aimed at building an AI-powered device that many analysts believe could eventually mount a challenge to the iPhone.
Reuters, AP, Bloomberg
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