Elon Musk says xAI will be suing Apple as it believes the company is favoring its rivals in App Store rankings. He says Apple is breaking antitrust laws by making it “impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store.”
It’s unclear if xAI, Musk’s company, has begun taking legal action yet. The accusations from Musk were posted late on August 11, and it may take the company some time to officially set out a lawsuit.
Early on August 12, Apple’s top free iPhone apps in the US shows ChatGPT in the top spot with Grok in position six. The next AI service listed is Google Gemini, which is in position 64, followed by Microsoft 365 Copilot in position 100.
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Following up on his original message, Musk reposted various claims from other X users that Apple’s deal with OpenAI, first announced in June 2024, is the reason the company is prioritizing ChatGPT across its App Store.
Musk also claimed Apple is prioritizing OpenAI in its editorially controlled content. He said, “Hey @Apple App Store, why do you refuse to put either 𝕏 or Grok in your “Must Have” section when 𝕏 is the #1 news app in the world and Grok is #5 among all apps?” He followed it up by asking directly, “why is ChatGPT literally in every list where you have editorial control?”
OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, posted a response on X. He said, “This is a remarkable claim given what I have heard alleged that Elon does to manipulate X to benefit himself and his own companies and harm his competitors and people he doesn’t like.”
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Altman points to claims of Musk tweaking X’s algorithm back in 2023. He cited a report from Platformer that says Musk asked the brand to show his tweets more regularly after President Biden’s post about that year’s Super Bowl did better than his.
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Musk responded by saying, “You got 3M views on your bullshit post, you liar, far more than I’ve received on many of mine, despite me having 50 times your follower count!”
Musk also publicly agreed with X’s Head of Product who responded to Altman saying “Perhaps it is you who is manipulating your products to your benefit, by putting warnings on every link to a competitor?” He then showed a screenshot of ChatGPT’s warning message for external links.
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Apple has yet to respond to Musk’s accusations. PCMag has asked Apple for comment on the topic, and we will update this story when we hear back.
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About James Peckham
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