Looks like a big tech war is brewing. Elon Musk has announced that he may sue Apple over antitrust violations for promoting ChatGPT heavily on the App Store, leaving no room for healthy competition for other AI chatbots. Musk claims that Apple’s App Store unfairly favors OpenAI, making it 'impossible' for other AI apps to reach number one.
According to Musk, Grok currently holds the fifth position in the US App Store’s "Top Free Apps" chart, while X, formerly Twitter, is the "No.1 news app in the world." However, neither app features in Apple’s "Must Have" list, which prominently displays ChatGPT. "Apple is playing politics," Musk alleged, announcing that xAI will initiate legal action against the company.
In his latest post, Musk replies to the legal action announcement by saying, "Unfortunately, what choice do we have? Apple didn’t just put their thumb on the scale, they put their whole body!"
Apple is already under intense regulatory scrutiny worldwide. In the US, a judge recently found the company in violation of an injunction related to the Epic Games antitrust case, while in April, the European Union fined Apple EUR 500 million for breaching the Digital Markets Act.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently accused Musk of hypocrisy after his comment about OpenAI eating Microsoft alive. Altman alleged that Musk manipulates the X platform to benefit his own ventures. Apple has yet to issue a public statement on the matter.
