Elon Musk followed through on Monday with a warning to sue Apple (AAPL) and OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) over their agreement to integrate OpenAI’s chatbot into Apple’s operating systems and prioritize the chatbot in its app store.
In a lawsuit filed in the Texas federal district court, Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI (XAAI.PVT), and his social media platform, X, alleged that the partnership between the iPhone maker and rival AI developer, OpenAI, violates laws against unfair competition.
“This is a tale of two monopolists joining forces,” Musk’s companies alleged in the complaint, saying that Apple and OpenAI had “locked up” their respective monopolies in the smartphone market — and the market for generative AI-powered chatbots.
Apple couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. OpenAI said, “This latest filing is consistent with Mr Musk’s ongoing pattern of harassment.”
According to the lawsuit, OpenAI controls at least 80% of the market for AI-powered chatbots. Apple, it claimed, holds a 65% share in the market for smartphones.
The lawsuit alleges unfair competition and multiple violations of Section 1 and Section 2 of the Sherman Act, including monopolization, attempted monopolization, and conspiracy to monopolize the respective markets. It also alleges violations of Texas state competition law.
In June, during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple announced that OpenAI had agreed to make its AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT, exclusive to Apple devices on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. ChatGPT’s integration is intended to enhance features that Apple offers through its voice command system, Siri, and its systemwide writing tools.
“This means that if iPhone users want to use a generative AI chatbot for key tasks on their devices, they have no choice but to use ChatGPT,” the lawsuit claims, even if the user would prefer to use chatbots such as xAI’s Grok.
The lawsuit acknowledges that iPhone users can access generative AI chatbots other than ChatGPT by using their phone’s web browser or by downloading a competing generative AI chatbot’s app. However, the plaintiffs argue that those alternate options fail to offer the same level of usability and access to user prompts as ChatGPT’s first-party integration.
The complaint claims that Apple colluded with OpenAI to make ChatGPT exclusive to its products in a belated attempt to hold on to its smartphone market monopoly. That monopoly, it claims, is under threat from AI innovations, like AI-powered “super apps” meant to work across mobile devices.
“Super apps, like those being developed by X and xAI, stand ready to upend the smartphone market and Apple’s entrenched monopoly in it,” the lawsuit states. “As Apple now recognizes, AI poses an existential threat to its business.”
