Musk Threatens to Ban Apple From His Companies After OpenAI Deal

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Facts

  • Elon Musk on Monday said that in light of the new partnership between Apple and OpenAI, he would potentially ban Apple devices from his companies. Musk would do so over what he says are privacy and security concerns.1
  • Earlier that day, Apple announced plans to integrate OpenAI's flagship product, ChatGPT, into the operating system of their iPhone and Mac devices, also noting that personal data would not be collected by the AI system.2
  • Musk responded on X, saying that if the integration were to go ahead, it would pose an 'unacceptable security violation' and that he would mandate employees at his companies 'check their Apple devices at the door.'3
  • Enterprises owned by Musk include electric automaker Tesla, space ship maker SpaceX, social media platform X, and AI company xAI. Tesla is Musk's largest company, with over 140K employees.4
  • With regards to privacy, Musk accused Apple of selling users 'down the river' to OpenAI, saying that Apple is handing data over to OpenAI without due care. Apple has not responded to Musk's remarks.2
  • Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI in 2015 and sued the non-profit and its CEO, Sam Altman, in March over claims it is no longer a not-for-profit enterprise. Musk founded xAI as a competitor.3

Sources: 1CNN, 2CBS, 3Reuters and 4CNBC.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by Forbes. Musk's claims are clearly an expression of grievance and jealousy against the company he co-founded. Musk was even fact-checked on his own platform over his misrepresentations of the Apple announcement. User data is to be stored locally or on a private cloud, and is not being fed to OpenAI, which makes this recent pronouncement nothing but fearmongering to damage a business rival.
  • Narrative B, as provided by The Sydney Morning Herald. OpenAI does not have the same privacy track record as Apple, and that weak link could validate Musk's fears of these devices being compromised. Data is gold to companies that train AI models, and aggregated data, even if it's anonymized, could prove too tempting for OpenAI to resist. There is reason to be concerned about this blockbuster partnership.

Predictions