Elon Musk threatens to ban Apple devices from his companies after OpenAI deal

Elon Musk isn't best pleased with Apple's new partnership with OpenAI

(Credit: Apple)

• 😤 Elon Musk has taken to X to express his opinion on Apple’s OpenAI deal

• ⛔️ Musk said “Apple devices will be banned at my companies” if Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level

• 👮 Musk believes the partnership is a security concern

• ✋ He went as far as to say, “Visitors will have to check their Apple devices at the door”

Elon Musk has now expressed concerns over Apple’s partnership with OpenAI and has threatened to ban Apple devices from being used at his companies.

Apple detailed its AI plans during WWDC 2024, which includes OpenAI integrations such as ChatGPT. Apple repeatedly assured that privacy was of its utmost concern during its presentation, and said that it will not collect personal or private data.

However, as part of iOS 18, Apple said that Siri will turn to ChatGPT if it thinks it can help answer a question, but the assistant will ask permission before doing so. This means users won’t have to download the ChatGPT iOS app, but this hasn’t gone down well with Elon Musk.

Musk believes that OpenAI should remain a dedicated app, and not be integrated into Apple’s ecosystem like Siri is. Speaking on X, Musk said: “If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, then Apple devices will be banned at my companies. That is an unacceptable security violation.”

He followed up by saying, “And visitors will have to check their Apple devices at the door, where they will be stored in a Faraday cage.”

Musk’s post led to a response from VC and CTO Sam Pullara at Sutter Hill Ventures, who said that OpenAI does not have access to an Apple device as the user is approving a specific request on a per-request basis. However, that answer didn’t satisfy Musk. “Then leave it as an app. This is bullshit,” said the Tesla CEO.

Musk also went as far as to suggest he could partner with Samsung to manufacture an X phone. A user suggested the phone could be powered by X OS and would be open source to ensure user privacy is protected, to which Musk replied, “It is not out of the question.”

It’s fair to say that Elon Musk isn’t OpenAI’s biggest fan. He’s currently suing the company for partnering with Microsoft and has accused OpenAI of going against its founding mission, which was to put benefiting humanity ahead of profit. Musk also called OpenAI’s recent ChatGPT-4o demo “cringe”.

Apple is calling its AI integration “Apple Intelligence”, and it uses on-device and cloud processing to enable smarter Siri actions, on-screen awareness, the ability to adjust the tone of emails, and allows you to create detailed AI images in Messages, Notes, and other apps. Whether you’re excited by the possibilities of AI or not, it seems like it’s now unavoidable.

Check out our roundup of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, the new Apple Watch update, Apple TV and AirPods updates, and visionOS 2 for everything you need to know.

Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor, where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.