Elon Musk Vows to Ban Apple Devices at His Companies Over OpenAI Deal
Elon Musk threatens to ban Apple devices at Tesla and xAI, calling the new ChatGPT integration an unacceptable security violation. Apple defends the partnership by highlighting its new Private Cloud Compute system designed to protect user data.
Elon Musk threatens to ban Apple devices at his companies following Apple's announcement that it integrates OpenAI's ChatGPT into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia. Musk labels the partnership an unacceptable security violation and states that visitors must check their Apple devices at the door, where they are stored in a Faraday cage to block electromagnetic fields.
This strong reaction stems from Musk's ongoing rivalry with OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, as well as his own AI endeavors at Tesla and xAI. Musk co-founded OpenAI but left in 2018, leading to a bitter feud and an ongoing lawsuit that makes the new Apple partnership a direct threat to his competing AI model, Grok.
Apple counters these security concerns by pointing to its new Private Cloud Compute system, which the company describes as a new standard for AI privacy. The tech giant promises that user data sent to the cloud for AI processing remains inaccessible to anyone other than the user, including Apple itself, and invites independent experts to verify these strict privacy claims.