Elon Musk has filed a lawsuit against Apple (once again), alleging that the company is suppressing rival AI products to favor ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. At the center of the lawsuit is Grok, an AI chatbot developed by Musk-led xAI, and how it has allegedly been throttled to favor ChatGPT on the App Store for exposure.
What is happening?
Over the past couple of weeks, Musk has posted about Apple not showing Grok as “Must Have” app on the App Store, even though it appeared in the top ten rankings. “Grok is the smartest AI in the world on the toughest tests and just came first by far in coding, but is not mentioned at all under “AI” by Apple!,” Musk wrote in another post.
Following a series of vexed posts, Musk shared that they have no other option left except taking legal action against Apple. The lawsuit was eventually filed on August 25th in the district court of Texas (Fort Worth Division) and describes the subject matter as “a tale of two monopolists joining forces to ensure their continued dominance.”
The core argument is that Apple has inked deals with OpenAI to license the underlying ChatGPT tech for its ecosystem of products, including iPhones. In the wake of the partnership, Apple has allegedly been promoting ChatGPT on the App Store to such an extent that it has become impossible for rival AI products such as Grok to compete for exposure.
“Apple has taken further steps to protect its monopoly in smartphones and to preference OpenAI by deprioritizing the apps of competing generative AI chatbots and super apps in its App Store rankings, and it has dragged out its App Store app review processes for those competitors,” says the lawsuit.
Musk also targets the non-transparent “algorithmic recommendations” and “curated lists selected by experts” methods used to highlight apps in the “Top Apps” and “Must Have Apps” lists on the App Store. It alleges that both methods are prone to bias and that they have favored Apple and OpenAI.
It goes beyond the App Store situation
The lawsuit also highlights the Apple Intelligence situation, which is built atop the GPT AI stack provided by OpenAI. Apple Intelligence is now available on millions of iPhones, iPads, and Macs, while relying on OpenAI’s tech for a wide range of features such as Writing Tools, Visual Intelligence, and image generation, among others.
Additionally, ChatGPT is the default choice for any queries that Siri can’t natively handle. Thanks to this first-party integration, users can’t switch to any other AI chatbot and must only get their tasks handled by ChatGPT, if they tap into any of the tools offered with the Apple Intelligence bundle. That’s another crucial point of contention highlighted in the lawsuit.
ChatGPT essentially has access to millions of Apple devices without ever giving other AI products a chance at competing against it, as per the lawsuit. “Because OpenAI’s ChatGPT is the only generative AI chatbot integrated with Apple’s iPhone and can be accessed by users through that integration, users that might otherwise download other generative AI chatbots from Apple’s App Store have no reason to do so,” adds the lawsuit.
Ultimately, the lawsuit argues that Apple and OpenAI both have a monopoly position in their respective markets, and that their conduct has harmed competitors as well as users. The lawsuit ends with a demand for a jury trial and seeks an end to the anti-competitive actions highlighted in the lawsuit, aside from financial damages and legal costs.
