Elon Musk threatens to ban Apple devices at his companies over OpenAI integration, as cybersecurity experts warn of potential security risks in the tech giants’ AI arms race.
Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur behind Tesla and SpaceX, declared on Monday that he would ban Apple devices from his companies if the iPhone maker integrates OpenAI’s artificial intelligence technology at the operating system level. The threat, posted on Musk’s social media platform X.com, formerly known as Twitter, came hours after Apple unveiled a sweeping partnership with OpenAI at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference.
“That is an unacceptable security violation,” Musk wrote in an X post, referring to Apple’s plans to weave OpenAI’s powerful language models and other AI capabilities into the core of its iOS, iPadOS and macOS operating systems. “And visitors will have to check their Apple devices at the door, where they will be stored in a Faraday cage,” he added, apparently referring to a shielded enclosure that blocks electromagnetic signals.Escalating rivalry among tech giants
Musk’s broadside against Apple and OpenAI underscores the escalating rivalry and tensions among tech giants as they race for dominance in the booming market for generative AI. The Tesla CEO has been an outspoken critic of OpenAI, a company he helped found as a non-profit in 2015 before an acrimonious split, and is now positioning his own AI startup xAI as a direct competitor to Apple, OpenAI, and other major players.
But Musk is not alone in expressing concerns about the security implications of Apple’s tight integration with OpenAI’s technology, which will allow developers across the iOS ecosystem to tap the startup’s powerful language models for applications like natural language processing, image generation and more. Pliny the Prompter, a pseudonymous but widely respected cybersecurity researcher known for jailbreaking OpenAI’s ChatGPT model, called the move a “bold” but potentially risky step given the current state of AI security.
