Musk's xAI sues Apple and OpenAI, escalating billionaire's tech feud

Elon Musk connected Monday ramped up his ineligible feud with OpenAI arsenic his companies filed a caller suit against OpenAI and Apple accusing some of anticompetitive behaviour successful the artificial quality manufacture successful a increasing clash of tech titans.

Apple and OpenAI announced a concern past twelvemonth that would let Apple customers to link with OpenAI’s chatbot, ChatGPT, connected iPhones. Musk’s societal media steadfast X and artificial quality institution X.AI LLC accidental that the woody has hindered their quality to vie and has locked up markets to support what they picture arsenic Apple and OpenAI’s monopolies.

“Plaintiffs bring this suit to halt Defendants from perpetrating their anticompetitive strategy and to retrieve billions successful damages,” according to the suit filed successful U.S. District Court successful Texas connected Monday. Musk’s companies, Bastrop, Texas-based X and Palo Alto-based xAI, are seeking a imperishable injunction against Apple and OpenAI and much than $1 cardinal successful damages.

The suit adds to a long-running combat betwixt Musk and OpenAI’s Chief Executive Sam Altman. Musk was an aboriginal capitalist successful OpenAI but aboriginal near its committee and started a rival AI business, xAI. Musk has an ongoing suit against OpenAI and Altman, accusing them of fraud and breach of declaration implicit OpenAI’s efforts to alteration its firm structure.

“This latest filing is accordant with Mr Musk’s ongoing signifier of harassment,” OpenAI said successful a statement.

Musk’s companies’ suit claims ChatGPT has astatine slightest an 80% marketplace stock successful the generative AI chatbot market, whereas xAI’s chatbot Grok has conscionable a fewer percent points successful marketplace share.

“As a effect of Apple and OpenAI’s exclusive arrangement, ChatGPT is the only AI chatbot that benefits from billions of idiosyncratic prompts originating from hundreds of millions of iPhones,” according to xAI’s lawsuit. “This makes it hard for competitors of ChatGPT’s generative AI chatbot and ace apps powered by generative AI chatbots to standard and innovate.”

xAI has asked to integrate Grok straight with Apple’s bundle ecosystem, iOS, but hasn’t been allowed to bash so, Musk’s companies said successful their lawsuit. While users tin entree different AI chatbots connected iPhones by utilizing a web browser oregon downloading an AI chatbot’s app, “those options bash not supply the aforesaid level of functionality, usability, integration, oregon entree to idiosyncratic prompts arsenic ChatGPT’s first-party integration with Apple,” the suit says.

The suit besides accuses Apple of deprioritizing the AI chatbot apps of OpenAI’s competitors successful the App Store.

Apple did not instantly respond to The Times’ petition for remark connected the lawsuit.

Earlier this month, Musk said connected X that helium planned to instrumentality ineligible enactment against Apple, causing a sparring lucifer connected the societal media level betwixt him and OpenAI’s Altman.

“Apple is behaving successful a mode that makes it intolerable for immoderate AI institution too OpenAI to scope #1 successful the App Store, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation,” Musk wrote connected Aug. 11.

Altman aboriginal posted connected X, “This is simply a singular assertion fixed what I person heard alleged that Elon does to manipulate X to payment himself and his ain companies and harm his competitors and radical helium doesn’t like.”

Apple antecedently told Bloomberg that it collaborates with galore developers “to summation app visibility successful rapidly evolving categories” and features thousands of apps successful charts, algorithmic recommendations and curated lists by experts utilizing nonsubjective criteria.

“The App Store is designed to beryllium just and escaped of bias,” Apple told Bloomberg.

Apple has besides faced backlash and disapproval from immoderate developers and the Department of Justice implicit the mode it operates its App Store. Last twelvemonth the DOJ sued Apple, accusing it of engaging successful practices that prevented different companies from offering apps that vie with Apple’s offerings.

At the time, Apple said that if the government’s suit was successful, it would wounded its quality to make the benignant of exertion radical expect from Apple “where hardware, software, and services intersect.”

“It would besides acceptable a unsafe precedent, empowering authorities to instrumentality a dense manus successful designing people’s technology,” the institution said.

Staff writer Queenie Wong and Editorial Library Director Cary Schneider contributed to this report.