Elon Musk announced a ban on iPhones for employees if Apple integrates ChatGPT into its devices

Billionaire Elon Musk on Monday threatened to ban the use of Apple devices by employees at any of his companies amid a newly announced partnership between the tech giant and OpenAI that will include integrating its powerful AI chatbot ChatGPT into Apple’s operating systems later this year.

“Apple shares our commitment to security and innovation, and this partnership aligns with OpenAI’s mission to make advanced artificial intelligence accessible to everyone,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement. “Together with Apple, we are making it easier for people to take advantage of the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence.”

Musk, one of OpenAI’s co-founders who has recently become one of the company’s harshest critics, does not appear to share the enthusiasm of Altman, who sharply criticized the collaboration in a series of posts on his X platform, formerly Twitter.

“If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, Apple devices will be banned from my companies,” he wrote. “This is an unacceptable security breach.”

In a follow-up post, Musk added that visitors to his businesses would have to “check their Apple devices at the door, where they will be stored in a Faraday cage,” which blocks electromagnetic fields.

He also responded to a post by Apple CEO Tim Cook in which he urged him to “stop this terrifying spyware.”

Apple did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

The Cupertino-based company announced the new partnership at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, where it introduced “Apple Intelligence,” a new personal intelligence system that puts generative models at the heart of iPhone, iPad and Mac computers.

Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering at Apple, said user privacy remains a top priority for the company.

“The cornerstone of a personal intelligence system is on-device processing,” Federighi said.

“It is aware of your personal data without collecting it,” he continued.

As part of Apple Intelligence, users will have access to ChatGPT through Siri and system-wide writing tools, for free and without the need to create an account.

Federighi noted that users will have control over whether ChatGPT is used on their devices and will be asked before sharing any information. Additionally, their IP addresses will be hidden and no requests will be stored by OpenAI.

However, Musk seemed skeptical about how Apple would be able to maintain its commitment to privacy through this partnership.

“Apple has no idea what’s actually going on when it gives your data to OpenAI,” he wrote in another post. “They sell you down the river.”

In late February, Musk sued OpenAI and Altman, claiming that OpenAI had returned to its original mission of benefiting humanity due to its affiliation with Microsoft.

“Under new management, the company is not only developing but actually improving (artificial general intelligence) to maximize profits for Microsoft rather than for the benefit of humanity,” the lawsuit says.

It’s worth noting that in November, Musk launched a ChatGPT competitor called Grok through his startup xAI. Grok is available to those who have signed up for a premium X subscription.

In addition to X and xAI, Musk also owns Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and The Boring Company.