Elon Musk will block Apple devices due to integration with OpenAI

After Apple announced at the WWDC 2024 conference that it was working with OpenAI, Elon Musk in a series of posts on X threatened to ban the sale of Apple devices in his companies.

According to Elon, integrating with OpenAI means sacrificing data security and privacy. He doesn’t believe Apple can ensure OpenAI protects its users.

However, it seems that Musk’s concerns may be a bit exaggerated. Apple does not deeply integrate OpenAI tools into its devices. Siri will only access ChatGPT if the user specifically requests it.

Elon Musk is once again unhappy, this time with Apple’s new partnership with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which was announced during WWDC 2024 on Monday (June 10).

Elon Musk posted a series of tweets on X in which he stated that if this cooperation takes place, he will ban the sale of Apple devices in his companies (he owns Tesla, X (Twitter) and SpaceX). He called it “unacceptable security breach”

Moreover, the ban will not be limited to office devices only, as it will also apply to guests carrying Apple devices. “…visitors will need to check their Apple device at the door, where it will be stored in a Faraday cage”- said Elon Musk.

Note: A Faraday cage is a grounded metal enclosure used to block electromagnetic waves.

Understanding Elon Musk’s problem with OpenAI

His tweets show that Elon Musk does not trust OpenAI with user data. In one of his many tweets he wrote:Apple has no idea what’s actually going on when it gives your data to OpenAI. They sell you down the river“

Elon Musk then added that it is “obviously absurd” that Apple is unable to create its own AI and yet is brave enough to ensure that OpenAI will protect Apple users’ data.

The most interesting thing here is this Elon Musk is actually one of the co-founders of OpenAI and was one of its largest investors.

However, over the past few years, the relationship between Elon Musk and Sam Altman has turned bitter, especially after Musk sued OpenAI for allegedly violating the company’s original vision and moving away from being a research-focused nonprofit.

In response, Altman rejected these allegations, calling them “fictitious” and “frivolous”, and even suggested that Musk may be jealous because he is no longer part of OpenAI.

Is there truth in what Elon Musk says?

At the time of writing, it seems so Musk’s reaction may be a bit exaggerated. It appears he misunderstood the terms of the Apple-OpenAI partnership.

OpenAI (more specifically ChatGPT 4.0) is not deeply integrated with Apple devices, as Elon Musk claims. In fact, it will work like this:

Almost all questions that Apple users ask Siri will be processed on the device using Apple’s proprietary models.

If specific requests are too complex or beyond the level of expertise of Apple models, then they will be sent externally.

However, the “external” does not necessarily have to be ChatGPT. Queries can be routed to a larger server-based model that is built on custom Apple servers using Apple Silicon. This is what Apple calls “private cloud computing.”

Only when you ask Siri a question that ChatGPT is better equipped to answer will your queries reach OpenAI models.

This is worth noting users will be asked for consent before their queries are sent to ChatGPT-whenever. Here’s what it will look like:

OpenAI added to this and said this Built-in privacy safeguards keep user data safe.

IP addresses originating from Apple devices (via Siri and typing tools) will be hidden and IP addresses Questions asked by users will not be stored on OpenAI servers. Apple will also not store any of your data, e.g. if you use a private cloud.

Although we do not yet know how this cooperation will work in practice, many industry experts believe so Apple’s approach includes privacy. Most of the data is processed on the device itself, and users will only need to rely on ChatGPT for a few select topics – and then only if they give Siri permission to do so.

Speaking of Elon Musk’s threat to ban Apple devices, time will tell whether he will follow up on his words, because there is no denying that his track record so far is full of wild threats and broken promises.

read more: Elon Musk claims that artificial intelligence will take over all our work in the future.

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