Elon Musk to Ban Apple Devices If OpenAI Is Integrated In OS

Billionaire Elon Musk has threatened to ban Apple devices at his companies should Apple integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT into its iPhone, iPad, and Mac operating systems.

Musk called it an “unacceptable security violation” and even said the Apple block could extend to visitors to his company’s headquarters.

“If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, then Apple devices will be banned at my companies. That is an unacceptable security violation,” Musk stressed in a June 10 X post.

If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, then Apple devices will be banned at my companies. That is an unacceptable security violation.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 10, 2024

Musk even suggested that visitors to Tesla, Space Exploration Technologies Corp, and other companies he runs would need to have their Apple devices “stored in a Faraday cage” upon entry.

And visitors will have to check their Apple devices at the door, where they will be stored in a Faraday cage

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 10, 2024

During Apple’s 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10, the tech giant revealed “Apple Intelligence” — a suite of new generative AI features — which will be rolled out to iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia later this year.

Don’t want it.

Either stop this creepy spyware or all Apple devices will be banned from the premises of my companies.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 10, 2024

The development had been leaked from Bloomberg over the weekend.

One feature will enable Apple’s voice assistant, Siri, to relay user questions to ChatGPT when necessary. “Users are asked before any questions are sent to ChatGPT, along with any documents or photos, and Siri then presents the answer directly.”

The feature would be powered by GPT-4o — OpenAI’s latest iteration of ChatGPT.

But Musk said it is “patently absurd” that Apple “isn’t smart enough” to make their own AI and suggested they would be doing their customers a disservice by outsourcing privacy and security. “They’re selling you down the river.”

It’s patently absurd that Apple isn’t smart enough to make their own AI, yet is somehow capable of ensuring that OpenAI will protect your security & privacy!

Apple has no clue what’s actually going on once they hand your data over to OpenAI. They’re selling you down the river.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 10, 2024

“Apple using the words ‘protect your privacy’ while handing your data over to a third-party AI that they don’t understand and can’t themselves create is *not* protecting privacy at all,” Musk said in another X post.

But Musk didn’t provide details of the privacy protections embedded into the OpenAI integration, and as a result, his X post triggered the “readers added context” feature.

It provided a link to Apple’s press statement explaining that user IP addresses would remain obscured and OpenAI won’t store requests.