Merely hours after Apple announced “Apple Intelligence”—its new generative AI initiatives—billionaire tech magnate Elon Musk criticized the announcement in a series of tweets and issued a stern warning that if Apple “integrates OpenAI at the OS level,” all Apple devices will be banned at his companies.

KEY FACTS

• Musk—who cofounded six companies including SpaceX, Tesla and OpenAI itself—warned that integrating OpenAI at that level “is an unacceptable security violation.”
• He informed in a follow up post that visitors, ostensibly referring to those going to his companies’ offices, would “have to check their Apple devices at the door” and they would be stored in a Faraday cage, which blocks electromagnetic fields.
• On Monday, Apple CEO (Tim Cook) publicized that the next Apple OS will have ChatGPT directly integrated into iPhones, which would let the chatbot to write iMessages or answer other generative prompts.
• Apple said in a release on Monday that “privacy protections are built in for users who access ChatGPT,” adding further that their IP addresses are obscured and OpenAI would not store requests made of it, but made it clear that ChatGPT’s data-use policies apply.

CRUCIAL QUOTE

“It’s patently absurd that Apple isn’t smart enough to make their own AI, yet is somehow capable of ensuring that OpenAI will protect your security & privacy!” Musk posted on X. “Apple has no clue what’s actually going on once they hand your data over to OpenAI. They’re selling you down the river.”

KEY BACKGROUND

Apple disclosed a number of new features users can expect to have on future versions of its OS, at its Worldwide Developers Conference. Apple’s launch of its own AI was long anticipated, with most other tech companies, like Googleand Microsoft, already working to compete in the artificial intelligence market. Musk himself recently announced his AI company, xAI, raised some $6 billion in a funding round. Musk has clashed with Apple in the past when he accused Apple of damaging Twitter after he bought it by decreasing its advertising and stating it would take Twitter out of its App Store—however he met with Cook and resolved the issue, stating they had a “good conversation” that “resolved the misunderstanding.” Musk has also been critical of OpenAI, and in March declared he was suing the company and its CEO Sam Altman for undermining what Musk opines was the company’s original objective of developing an open-source AI that would “benefit humanity” in favor of earning more money. OpenAIstated in a blog post it “intend(s) to move to dismiss all of Elon’s claims.”