Elon Musk widens his long quarrel with Sam Altman of Openai by calling on a third party: Apple

Apple denied Musk’s claims, saying in a statement that the App Store “is designed to be fair and free from prejudices”.

“We present thousands of applications via graphics, algorithmic recommendations and organized lists selected by experts using objective criteria,” a spokesperson said in a media shared press release. “Our objective is to offer a safe discovery for users and valuable opportunities for developers, in collaboration with a lot to increase the visibility of applications in rapidly evolving categories.”

Musk X and Grok Chatbot users quickly pointed out that Musk’s claim was undermined by applications like Deepseek and Perplexity having previously taken the first location on the Apple App Store.

The problem may have more to do with Apple’s standing agreement with the Openai Chatppt. As part of an agreement of mid-2024, the chatgpt is integrated into Siri and the writing tools at the system scale on an opt-in basis. Siri requests permission before sending queries; No OPENAI account is required; And Apple said it was planning to support additional AI suppliers over time.

Despite this, integration gives Chatgpt a leading and first -party investment on hundreds of millions of Apple devices, which potentially makes more difficult for competitors such as Musk XAI to attract the attention of users. With Google weaving its gemini AI in Android, the mobile AI market could be more and more shaped by default integrations, which could make much more difficult for competitors like XAI.

The Openai and Apple agreement seemed to be under the skin of the billionaire when he was announced, with Musk adopting to X to complain: “It is obviously absurd that Apple is not intelligent enough to make its own AI, but is somehow capable of guaranteeing that Optai will protect your safety and your confidentiality!”

Musk then threatened to integrate all the Apple devices of its companies if Openai technology was integrated into iOS operating systems.

Apple antitrust problems

Apple is currently at the center of several other antitrust battles.

The Apple App Store is one of the few key platforms for the distribution of applications. The one who obtains visibility there has indeed gave a huge share of new users, which was a discord for some of his competitors.

In the United States, Apple App Store practices have been examined since 2020, when the company has been continued by EPIC games for the abolition of Fortnite of the App Store to bypass its payment system to avoid the Commission of 30%. A federal court of appeal recently refused to suspend a prescription from its long battle with EPIC games which obliges Apple to allow developers to direct users to external payment options.

Last year, the Ministry of Justice filed a historic antitrust trial accusing Apple of monopolizing the smartphones market, alleging that the policies of the App Store block new developers and stifle innovation. Apple has denied allegations, saying that its practices promote innovation and the choice of consumers. In June, the New Jersey District District Court rejected Apple’s request to reject the trial.

In a separate case bought against Google by the Ministry of Justice, the approval of $ 15 to 20 billion in Apple with the research giant could also be at stake after the federal judge said in August last year that Google illegally maintained a monopoly in internet research, partly thanks to exclusive agreements with companies like Apple. The agreement, which made Google the default search engine on its aircraft, could be disrupted by the remedies currently weighed by a judge, with warnings from JPMorgan analysts that a worst -case decision could cost Apple around $ 12.5 billion per year.