Musk threatens to ban the use of Apple devices in his companies due to OpenAI integration

(The Hill) – Technology CEO Elon Musk said he will ban employees at his companies from using Apple devices if the tech giant goes through with its plan announced Monday to launch artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.

Apple says its “Intelligence” feature, which integrates OpenAI’s ChatGPT, personalizes the phone to the user’s needs and adds more functionality.

“If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, Apple devices will be banned from my companies. This is an unacceptable security breach,” Musk wrote on his X social media platform.

Musk, who heads X, carmaker Tesla and space company SpaceX, launched his own artificial intelligence venture xAI last year. Competitor OpenAI claimed to have raised $6 billion last month at a valuation of $18 billion.

The threat exacerbates Musk’s feud with OpenAI, which he co-founded but is no longer affiliated with. Musk’s rivalry escalated into a legal battle in March when he sued the company and its leader Sam Altman, accusing them of breaching an agreement in which Altman promised to develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity. This legal challenge sparked the creation of xAI, Musk later said.

The company announced Monday that with Apple Intelligence, users will be able to prioritize their notifications or help change the language in apps including email, notes and messages.

This feature will be included as part of the launch of the new iOS18, as well as updates to the Mac and iPad operating systems that will be released in the fall.

Apple says ChatGPT access will be built into the Siri voice assistant and will be available on the company’s other devices.

xAI launched its own text-generating AI model a rival to ChatGPT called Grok earlier this year.