Elon Musk Threatens to Ban Apple Devices Over ChatGPT Integration

In a surprising turn of events, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has threatened to ban the use of Apple devices at his companies if Apple integrates OpenAI’s ChatGPT into its operating systems for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. 

Elon Musk to Ban Apple Devices?

Musk expressed his strong disapproval in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on June 10, citing significant security concerns.

“If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, then Apple devices will be banned at my companies. That is an unacceptable security violation,” Elon Musk emphasized in his post. He even suggested that visitors to Tesla, Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX), and his other ventures might need to store their Apple devices in a Faraday cage upon entry to prevent any potential data breaches.

‘Apple Intelligence’

This development follows Apple’s announcement at its 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 10. The tech giant unveiled “Apple Intelligence,” a suite of new generative AI features set to roll out with iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia later this year. 

The announcement, which had been leaked by Bloomberg over the weekend, includes a feature that allows Apple’s voice assistant, Siri, to relay user questions to ChatGPT when necessary.

Apple explained that users would be asked for consent before any questions, documents, or photos are sent to ChatGPT, with Siri then presenting the answers directly. This feature is powered by GPT-4o, the latest iteration of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Elon Musk Criticizes Apple’s Reliance on OpenAI

Elon Musk, however, criticized Apple’s reliance on OpenAI, stating it is “patently absurd” that Apple “isn’t smart enough” to develop its own AI. He argued that by outsourcing AI capabilities, Apple is compromising customer privacy and security. “They’re selling you down the river,” Elon Musk stated, adding, 

“Apple using the words ‘protect your privacy’ while handing your data over to a third-party AI that they don’t understand and can’t themselves create is *not* protecting privacy at all.”

Impact of the Announcement

Despite Musk’s strong statements, he did not provide specific details about the privacy protections embedded in the OpenAI integration. This omission led to the “readers added context” feature being triggered on his X post. The context included a link to Apple’s press statement, which explained that user IP addresses would remain obscured and OpenAI would not store requests.

The announcement of Apple Intelligence and Musk’s reaction have had notable impacts, yet they did not inspire a price rally for AI-linked cryptocurrencies. According to CoinGecko, Render (RNDR), Fetch.ai (FET), and SingularityNET (AGIX) have all seen declines of 5.9%, 3.3%, and 3.9% respectively over the last 24 hours.