Grokl without iPhone integration: Musk's xAI sues Apple and OpenAI
Apple and OpenAI are working together to systematically exclude AI competitors, according to the lawsuit filed by X and xAI.
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Elon Musk is making good on his threat: the companies X and xAI filed a lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI in the USA on Monday. The iPhone manufacturer and the ChatGPT maker have joined forces to secure their respective monopoly positions and prevent competition, according to the accusation.
xAI had asked Apple to integrate Grok into iOS, "but Grok was not allowed to do so", according to the lawsuit(X et xAI v Apple and OpenAI, US District Court For The Northern District Of Texas, Az. 4:25-cv-00914). As a result, Grok does not have access to billions of requests from iPhone users and therefore cannot develop as quickly as ChatGPT.
Accusation of App Store manipulation
The plaintiffs argue that Apple's partnership with OpenAI is "illegal", no other AI app is able to integrate so deeply into iOS. Users already have a chatbot that they can address via Siri and are therefore less interested in downloading other AI apps. On top of this, Apple is manipulating the App Store to make competitors less visible, according to the lawsuit. As if that were not enough, Apple is also delaying the approval of updates to the Grok app.
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Elon Musk has already made this accusation publicly and spoken of "political games" because Grok does not appear on Apple's list of "must have" apps. In return, Apple insisted that the App Store was "designed to be fair and impartial". The Musk companies are demanding compensation and want to obtain an injunction prohibiting Apple and OpenAI from taking such action.
Only ChatGPT with iPhone integration so far
ChatGPT is so far the only chatbot that Apple has prominently integrated into iOS, Siri and Apple Intelligence. Although Apple hinted months ago that a similarly designed integration of Google Gemini was planned, this has not yet happened.
ChatGPT serves as an extension of Siri and certain Apple Intelligence functions. OpenAI's AI models do not run locally on the iPhone, but are accessed via an interface in the cloud if users agree to this. Apple and OpenAI promise not to use user questions for AI training. A ChatGPT account is not required, and the IP address also remains hidden.
(lbe)
