Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI: Accuses Collusion to Monopolize and Stifle AI Competition
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Elon Musk's X and xAI officially filed a lawsuit on Monday, accusing Apple and OpenAI of colluding to leverage their market dominance to stifle competition in the artificial intelligence field. At the heart of the lawsuit is Apple's cooperation agreement to integrate ChatGPT into its systems.
The filing alleges that Apple's move aims to 'desperately protect its smartphone monopoly,' while OpenAI is described as 'the company benefiting the most from suppressing AI competition and innovation' and labeled a 'monopolist in the generative AI chatbot market.' Musk argues that the collaboration between these two giants creates unfair competitive barriers for other AI companies.
This lawsuit represents the latest escalation in Musk's long-standing feud with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI but left due to disagreements over the company's direction. He previously attempted to sue to prevent OpenAI from becoming a for-profit entity and offered to acquire the company for $97.4 billion, only to be rejected.
Musk has repeatedly expressed concerns about the Apple-OpenAI partnership on X, previously posting: 'No AI company other than OpenAI can possibly rank first in the App Store,' hinting at Apple's potential monopolistic practices in AI app distribution.
Apple and OpenAI's collaboration was first announced in June last year, with related features expected to launch this December. Neither OpenAI nor Apple immediately responded to requests for comment regarding this lawsuit.