Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI is suing OpenAI and Apple over allegations that they are engaging in anticompetitive conduct. The lawsuit, filed in a Texas court on Monday, accuses the companies of “a conspiracy to monopolize the markets for smartphones and generative AI chatbots”.
Musk had earlier this month threatened to sue Apple and OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, after claiming that Apple was “making it impossible” for any other AI companies to reach the top spot on its app store. Musk’s xAI makes the Grok chatbot, which has struggled to become as prominent as ChatGPT.
Musk’s lawsuit challenges a key partnership between Apple and OpenAI that was announced last year, in which the device maker integrated OpenAI’s artificial intelligence capabilities into its operating systems. In claiming that their agreement “locked up markets”, Musk’s case is seeking to undo one of Apple’s most significant forays into AI and a marquee deal for OpenAI.
“Defendants entered an unlawful agreement and conspiracy to leverage Apple’s monopoly power in the US smartphone market to maintain OpenAI’s monopoly power in generative AI chatbots,” the complaint states. It is also seeking to “recover billions in damages”.
OpenAI rejected Musk’s allegations and framed the suit as part of his broader attacks against the company. “This latest filing is consistent with Mr Musk’s ongoing pattern of harassment,” an OpenAI spokesperson said.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit is the latest front in the ongoing feud between Musk and Altman. The two tech billionaires founded OpenAI together in 2015, but have since had an increasingly public falling out which has frequently turned litigious.
Musk left OpenAI after proposing to take over the company in 2018, and has since filed multiple lawsuits against the company over its plans to shift into a for-profit enterprise. Altman and OpenAI have rejected Musk’s criticisms and framed him as a petty, vindictive former partner.
“We’re sad that it’s come to this with someone whom we’ve deeply admired – someone who inspired us to aim higher, then told us we would fail, started a competitor, and then sued us when we started making meaningful progress towards OpenAI’s mission without him,” OpenAI posted in a statement last year, following one of Musk’s lawsuits.
The spat between Altman and Musk resurged earlier this month after the latter’s threat to sue Apple. Musk’s claims that Apple was manipulating the app store’s rankings to exclude other AI companies resulted in an exchange of posts between the two tech moguls challenging and insulting each other.
“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,” Altman posted in response to Musk’s claims that Apple was favoring OpenAI.
OpenAI is currently eyeing a $500bn valuation, which would make it the most valuable privately held company, exceeding Musk’s SpaceX rocket maker which is the current title holder, at $350bn.
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