Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has issued a warning that he may ban the use of Apple devices at his companies due to security concerns stemming from Apple’s new partnership with OpenAI.
This announcement came after Apple revealed at its annual developers’ conference that Siri, Apple’s voice assistant, would integrate with OpenAI’s generative chatbot, ChatGPT. Apple has assured that this integration would be optional, requiring user permission and confirming that the data involved would not be logged.
Musk’s response was immediate and pointed, expressing his dissatisfaction through a series of critical posts on X, his own social media platform, criticizing the partnership as “an unacceptable security violation” and questioning the safeguarding of user information by both companies. He argued that Apple’s reliance on an external AI indicates a lack of capability in developing its own solutions, thereby compromising user privacy and security.
Further escalating the issue, Musk responded directly to a post from Apple CEO Tim Cook, threatening to implement a ban on Apple devices across his companies unless Cook halts the partnership, which Musk referred to as “creepy spyware.” He proposed that visitors to his companies would be required to check their Apple devices at the door.
In addition to his criticisms of the partnership, Musk touched on his history with OpenAI. Having co-founded OpenAI in 2015, he stepped away from its board in 2018. Recently, he has been vocally critical of the organization and its current CEO, Sam Altman, even taking legal action against them for allegedly straying from their foundational mission of developing AI for broad human benefit.
Concurrently, Musk is advancing his ventures in AI through a new initiative, xAI, backed by a $6 billion funding round. xAI’s first product, Grok, is positioned as a counter to ChatGPT, aligning more with Musk’s vision of AI development. Musk’s extensive entrepreneurial portfolio also includes Neuralink and the Boring Company, further demonstrating his engagement across diverse technological domains.
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