Elon Musk added to his string of lawsuits against Apple and OpenAI on Monday, with his companies X and xAI suing both in US federal court in Texas for allegedly fostering an “anti-competitive scheme.”
The lawsuit alleges Apple suppressed the X (formerly Twitter) app and the Grok generative AI in the App Store because of Apple’s corporate deal with OpenAI, according to material acquired by Reuters. Apple uses ChatGPT to enhance its Apple Intelligence chatbot and image editing offerings on iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
X and xAI claim Apple ‘deprioritizes’ their AI apps
At the time of writing, ChatGPT was the first of the Top Free Apps displayed on the App Store, with Meta’s Threads (a competitor to X) at third. ChatGPT is also listed under Popular Apps. X or Grok do not appear in either section. ChatGPT ranks fourth on the list of top apps, along with TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, and Tinder.
“Working in tandem, Defendants Apple and OpenAI have locked up markets to maintain their monopolies and prevent innovators like X and xAI from competing,” the lawsuit said.
Seeking damages and market access
xAI is seeking billions of dollars in damages, according to the lawsuit.
The suit alleges Apple “recognizes” companies like X and xAI threaten it because generative AI may “upend the smartphone market.”
“Apple has taken further steps to protect its monopoly in smartphones and to favor 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,” xAI and X alleged. The suit defines super apps as generative AI chatbots that “offer many of the services of smartphones … [but] do not require a customer to be tied to a particular device.”
xAI and X also assert OpenAI violated antitrust laws by entering into the exclusive arrangement with Apple.
Musk sued OpenAI to try to prevent it from changing to a for-profit company
Musk had suggested in early August that xAI may sue Apple for allegedly keeping xAI off its App Store lists.
He is already suing OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman to try to keep the nonprofit’s owners from converting it to a for-profit operation. Further complicating the legal tangle, Musk is also attempting to dismiss a harassment claim from OpenAI. The claim alleges Musk has been trying to take over or discredit OpenAI for years. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has ruled the harassment case will go before a jury next March.
Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but left in 2018 due to disagreements about funding and, Musk said, to avoid conflicts of interest as Tesla was working on AI.
In other AI news, Meta will allegedly pay Google $10 billion for use of its cloud services.
