August 14: Apple on Wednesday rejected claims by billionaire Elon Musk that its App Store unfairly promotes OpenAI’s ChatGPT over his Grok chatbot, calling the platform “fair” and “free of bias.”
Musk, the CEO of Tesla and AI startup xAI, accused Apple earlier this week of “unequivocal antitrust violation” and threatened legal action. He alleged the App Store was giving preferential treatment to ChatGPT, which is developed by OpenAI, led by his long-time rival Sam Altman.
Apple said in a statement it features “thousands of apps” through charts, algorithmic recommendations and curated lists chosen by experts using “objective criteria.” The company added its goal was to provide “safe discovery for users and valuable opportunities for developers.”
The dispute comes against the backdrop of Apple’s 2024 partnership with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into Siri and system-wide writing tools on an opt-in basis. The company said it plans to support additional AI providers in the future.
Musk’s accusations are the latest in a series of antitrust complaints Apple has faced in the United States. In 2020, “Fortnite” creator Epic Games sued the company over App Store payment policies, while last year the U.S. Justice Department filed a landmark case accusing Apple of monopolising the smartphone market.
Altman has accused Musk of using X, formerly Twitter, to advance his own companies at the expense of competitors. Musk has not detailed when or how he might pursue legal action against Apple.
