Musk says he will block all Apple devices if OpenAI is integrated at the operating system level – he says it would pose a huge security risk

Apple recently introduced Apple Intelligence, its interpretation of on-device AI, at WWDC 2024. AI features are designed to run primarily on-device, but any more power-hungry tasks will be offloaded to Apple’s private compute cloud. However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was irritated by the option to integrate ChatGPT with Apple’s AI services – initially with Siri.

Musk said: “If Apple integrates OpenAI at the operating system level, Apple devices will be banned from my companies. This is an unacceptable security breach.” He then expanded on his Twitter/X thread, stating: “Visitors will need to check their Apple devices at the door where they will be stored in a Faraday cage.”

And visitors will have to check their Apple devices at the door, where they will be stored in a Faraday cageJune 10, 2024

As always, Apple is late to introduce a hot technology trend. However, when it does move, it tends to go all in, and its Apple Intelligence has some attractive key features, particularly its emphasis on privacy. However, OpenAI’s ChatGPT model has an advantage over Apple, especially since the release of the revolutionary ChatGPT-3.5 in 2022. This 18-month difference gave OpenAI an advantage, and even Apple admits it.

Craig Federighi acknowledged as much during the Apple Intelligence segment: “Still, there are other AI tools that can be useful for tasks that draw on broad global knowledge or offer domain specific knowledge. We want you to be able to use these external models without having to switch between different tools, so we integrate them directly into your experience – and start with the best ones; pioneer and market leader ChatGPT with OpenAI, powered by CharGPT-4o.”

So if you use Siri AI and think ChatGPT can generate better ideas, it will contact OpenAI. Nevertheless, this is an optional feature, which means your iPhone will first confirm whether you want to share your data, including text and photos. OpenAI and Apple say that user IP addresses are hidden when ChatGPT receives requests, and that the former will not store them.

Despite his assurances, Elon Musk still has reservations. He claims that “Apple has no idea what is actually going on when it gives your data to OpenAI. They sell you down the river. Earlier this year, Musk sued OpenAI for allegedly violating its founding agreement. Company management, however, suggested that the move was due to Elon’s “regret at not being associated with the company today.”

Elon Musk’s concerns are technically moot, especially since Apple and OpenAI, at least on paper, put user privacy first. However, we cannot turn a blind eye to some of the problems that OpenAI and ChatGPT have encountered. For example, Samsung inadvertently disclosed sensitive data in 2023 when its employees were using ChatGPT at work. We also can’t discount malware or weak username/password combinations that could compromise iPhones integrated with ChatGPT user accounts.

Musk’s main problem is the integration of ChatGPT itself with Siri. However, this Siri-ChatGPT connection will likely work through an API and will not have access to your iPhone’s data except for information you explicitly send them. Still, Elon Musk (and a few other users) has trust issues in general when it comes to artificial intelligence. For some, the opt-in feature is good enough to ensure that Apple doesn’t send your data to ChatGPT. But in Elon Musk’s case, he’d rather not have it at all.