Elon Musk says that his synthetic intelligence firm xAI “will take speedy authorized motion” in opposition to Apple for allegedly manipulating its App Retailer rankings to the benefit of rival AI apps. In a collection of X posts on Monday night time, Musk instructed that Apple was “taking part in politics” by not inserting both X or xAI’s Grok chatbot within the App Retailer’s record of advisable iOS apps, and that he had no selection however to file a lawsuit.
“Apple is behaving in a fashion that makes it not possible for any AI firm apart from OpenAI to achieve #1 within the App Retailer, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation,” Musk mentioned. “Why do you refuse to place both X or Grok in your ‘Should Have’ part when X is the #1 information app on the earth and Grok is #5 amongst all apps?,” the xAI CEO requested Apple in one other submit, which is now pinned to his profile.
Musk supplied no proof for his claims, and it’s unclear if he has made good on his threats and filed the lawsuit but.
An Apple assertion reported by Bloomberg and attributed to an unnamed spokesperson says the App Retailer is “designed to be truthful and freed from bias… we characteristic 1000’s of apps by charts, algorithmic suggestions and curated lists chosen by consultants utilizing goal standards.” The Verge has additionally reached out to xAI and OpenAI for remark.
On the time of writing, ChatGPT is listed as Apple’s high free iPhone app within the US, with Grok ranked because the sixth. China’s DeepSeek AI briefly managed to take the highest App Retailer place from ChatGPT in January, nevertheless, disproving Musk’s declare that it might be not possible for different AI apps to take action.
Accusations of meddling from Musk are ironic, given allegations about alterations made to X after he acquired the corporate in 2022, then referred to as Twitter. A analysis research in 2024 instructed that X’s algorithm was manipulated to spice up posts from Musk’s account. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded to Musk’s posts by sharing a Platformer report from 2023 that equally discovered Musk had a system constructed to advertise his X posts to the whole platform’s userbase. In June, the “maximally truth-seeking” Grok chatbot was additionally discovered to be consulting Musk’s opinion earlier than offering solutions to controversial questions round matters like Israel and Palestine, US immigration, and abortion.
This isn’t the primary time that Musk has beefed with Apple and OpenAI. Musk was an early founder at OpenAI, and beforehand focused the AI startup by way of lawsuits and a unanimously rejected $97.4 billion buyout provide after taking concern with its pivot to being a profit-driven enterprise. Following OpenAI’s partnership with Apple to combine ChatGPT into iPhones, iPads, and Macs final 12 months, Musk threatened to ban Apple units at his corporations if OpenAI’s tech was fused with Apple’s OS.
Replace, August twelfth: Added assertion from Apple given to Bloomberg.
