Elon Musk to ban Apple at his companies if iPhone maker integrates ChatGPT

Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk on Tuesday said he will ban Apple devices at his companies if the iPhone maker integrates artificial intelligence firm OpenAI’s ChatGPT at the operating system level.

Musk called Apple’s latest move to integrate ChatGPT access into experiences within iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia as an “unacceptable security violation.”

“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,” Musk says in a post on X.

Apple on Monday said it allowing users to access ChatGPT’s expertise — as well as its image- and document-understanding capabilities — without needing to jump between tools.

Siri can tap into ChatGPT’s expertise when helpful. Users are asked before any questions are sent to ChatGPT, along with any documents or photos, and Siri then presents the answer directly, the iPhone maker says.

ChatGPT will be available in Apple’s system-wide writing tools, which help users generate content for anything they are writing about. With Compose, users can also access ChatGPT image tools to generate images in a wide variety of styles.

Apple says privacy protections are built in for users who access ChatGPT — their IP addresses are obscured, and OpenAI won’t store requests. ChatGPT’s data-use policies apply for users who choose to connect their account.

ChatGPT will come to iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia later this year, powered by GPT-4o. Users can access it for free without creating an account, and ChatGPT subscribers can connect their accounts and access paid features right from these experiences, says the Cupertino, California-based tech giant.

Apple also introduced Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Apple Intelligence, which is integrated into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, harnesses the power of Apple silicon to understand and create language and images, take action across apps, and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks.

“Apple Intelligence will transform what users can do with our products — and what our products can do for our users,” says Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Our unique approach combines generative AI with a user’s personal context to deliver truly helpful intelligence. And it can access that information in a completely private and secure way to help users do the things that matter most to them,” Cook says.

The AI features were unveiled at its Worldwide Developers Conference. Apple also showed its latest operating system for its Vision Pro mixed-reality headset and iPhone.