Elon Musk says iPhone, MacBook will be banned in his companies if Apple uses OpenAI (2024)

Elon Musk said that he would ban Apple devices at his companies if the iPhone maker integrates OpenAI at the operating system level. This comes as Tim Cook's company announced several AI features across its apps and operating platforms and a partnership with OpenAI to bring the ChatGPT technology to its devices.

"That is an unacceptable security violation," Elon Musk said in a post on X, adding, "And visitors will have to check their Apple devices at the door, where they will be stored in a Faraday cage," he said.

Read more: Elon Musk's X officially allows p*rn in new update to content policies

Apple said it built AI with privacy "at the core" and would use a combination of on-device processing and cloud computing to power those features.

On this Elon Musk said, “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!”

Read more: Who is India-origin engineer Ashok Elluswamy, praised by Elon Musk for Tesla AI?

Is there any validity in Elon Musk claims?

Ben Bajarin, CEO of consulting firm Creative Strategies, said as per news agency Reuters that Apple was trying to educate people that private cloud was as secure as keeping data on a device.

"What (Apple) is trying to now add to the narrative is when (data) leaves and goes to the secure private cloud, it's similarly taking that same user data anonymization and firewalling of that information to you. Apple really never sees that," he said.

Read more: Elon Musk to quit Tesla? Company executive's doomsday warning to shareholders: ‘He’s not a typical boss'

Elon Musk's tense relationship with OpenAI

Elon Musk sued OpenAI, which he co-founded in 2015, and its CEO Sam Altman earlier this year as he said that the AI startup had abandoned its original mission which was to benefit humanity and not work for profit. Elon Musk also founded his own startup, xAI, to challenge OpenAI.