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Elon Musk, never one to shy away from controversy, is once again taking aim, this time at Apple. The billionaire entrepreneur is fuming that his AI chatbot, Grok, isn’t featured prominently in the App Store’s recommended lists. He’s accusing Apple of favoring its partner, OpenAI, and its ChatGPT application.
In classic Musk fashion, this perceived slight has escalated quickly. Prepare for another verbal barrage, and possibly even a legal showdown.
Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” has a history of taking on powerful figures, regardless of political or business fallout. He’s sparred with President Biden and other Democratic figures, and recently took a swipe at former President Trump, consequences be damned, even if it rocks Tesla’s stock price.
In the cutthroat world of business, Musk is even more relentless. He seems to relish a good fight, and doesn’t hesitate to go on the offensive if he believes it benefits his companies. Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and OpenAI’s Sam Altman have all felt the sting of his criticism, provocations, and even lawsuits.
Now, the tech titan is targeting Apple, the behemoth of the mobile ecosystem. Over the past 24 hours, Musk has unleashed a torrent of posts on X, formerly Twitter, showcasing his full emotional spectrum: suspicion, speculation, anger, and finally, the threat of litigation.
So, what exactly has Apple done to incur Musk’s wrath this time? The crux of the issue, according to Musk, is that Apple is manipulating App Store rankings to benefit OpenAI and suppress competitors like X and Grok. He claims Apple has purposefully excluded X and Grok from coveted App Store recommendation lists.
The DeepSeek Debacle: A Reality Check via Community Notes
Musk’s fixation on App Store rankings isn’t unwarranted. Placement in the “Recommended,” “Trending,” or “Popular” sections can significantly boost an app’s visibility and user acquisition.
Critically, Apple provides limited insight into its app recommendation algorithms, citing factors such as app usability, customer ratings, and reviews, as weighted parameters. This opacity creates an environment ripe for questioning, particularly from individuals who pride themselves on uncovering hidden agendas.
In a pinned post on X, Musk demanded: “Why is Apple refusing to put X or Grok in your ‘must-have’ lists? X is the number one news app in the world and Grok is number five overall!”
He further questioned Apple’s alleged favoritism towards ChatGPT. “Why are Grok and X excluded from every list except the one that measures raw downloads, while ChatGPT is on every list? This is too shady!”
Musk’s agitation is palpable. He’s framing the situation as a battle against unfair practices.
Accusing Apple of potential antitrust violations, Musk stated, “Apple is making it impossible for any AI company other than OpenAI to take the top spot in the App Store rankings, it is undoubtedly an antitrust violation.” He then declared his intention to pursue immediate legal action against Apple.
Ironically, Musk’s claims were swiftly challenged by X’s “Community Notes”. The fact-checking feature cited credible sources demonstrating that the Chinese AI app, DeepSeek, topped the US App Store charts in January, and Perplexity has previously led the charts in India, both achieved *after* Apple and OpenAI solidified their relationship.
Apple Braces for Yet Another Antitrust Battle
Musk’s public accusations and threat of legal action are likely to further escalate the pressure on Apple. The tech giant is already battling antitrust allegations in the US and EU, where the App Store is at the center of multiple legal challenges.
In March of last year, the U.S. Department of Justice and 16 states filed a lawsuit against Apple, accusing the iPhone maker of monopolizing the smartphone market.
However, legal and political landscapes are changing rapidly, and whether the Trump administration will continue to prioritize the case remains uncertain.
Just last week, Tim Cook visited the White House, announcing an additional $100 billion to $600 billion investment into the U.S. economy, and presented Trump with a symbolic offering: a commemorative trophy crafted from American-made glass panels, resting on a golden base plated with Trump’s favorite 24K gold. Optics matter, especially when battling antitrust allegations.
The partnership between Apple and OpenAI is a matter of public record. Apple announced at last year’s WWDC that it would be integrating ChatGPT into iOS, iPadOS, macOS, Siri, and a range of its products. Lacking its own fully-developed large language model, Apple needed to seek an external partner.
Reports indicate Apple considered both Google and OpenAI before opting for ChatGPT.
ChatGPT isn’t necessarily an exclusive AI partner, and Apple may still seek collaborations with other AI models. Bloomberg reported last month that Apple could leverage Anthropic’s technology to enhance Siri in the coming year.
However, Apple’s integration of AI has been slow, failing to meaningfully enhance the intelligence of their products, even after a year. Siri’s capabilities still lag significantly. Furthermore, regulatory hurdles have prevented Apple from launching AI products in the crucial Chinese market.
The slow pace of AI adoption has weighed on Apple’s stock price. While other tech giants have experienced significant gains, Apple shares have declined by 6% year-to-date, second only to Tesla’s 10% drop.
Sam Altman: The Thorn in Musk’s Side
Perhaps Musk’s real issue isn’t that Grok is missing from the App Store charts, but that ChatGPT consistently scores top billing, attracting new users.
During the GPT-5 unveiling, OpenAI confirmed that ChatGPT has surpassed 700 million weekly active users. Comparatively, Grok, launched later, has less than 40 million monthly active users, trailing even Anthropic’s Claude.
Altman is currently perceived as Musk’s chief rival. While Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman and invested $100 million, he lost a power struggle to Altman. The OpenAI board rejected Musk’s bid to assume day-to-day operations, instead appointing Altman as CEO. Musk left OpenAI in protest.
The OpenAI Board’s decision stemmed largely from the pressures on Musk in 2018, as he struggled with Model 3 production and oversaw several other companies, while Altman stepped down as CEO of the prestigious incubator Y Combinator, focusing solely on OpenAI.
Musk, a man who seemingly operates with an unquenchable thirst for proving the establishment wrong, has experienced only two professional setbacks of this magnitude, the first occurring during his tenure at PayPal with Peter Thiel, and now with Sam Altman at OpenAI.
Thiel later became a major investor and no longer directly competed with Musk, leading to a reconciliation.
Altman however, remains Musk’s primary “enemy”.
Following ChatGPT’s rise, Musk’s resentment toward OpenAI has only intensified. He has sought to prevent it from becoming a for-profit entity by initiating lawsuits, while simultaneously creating xAI, attempting to challenge ChatGPT.
Last year, after Apple announced its partnership with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into iPhones, iPads and Macs, Musk threatened to bar Apple devices from his businesses, should the two companies deeply entwine their operating systems. He also hinted at developing his own mobile platform and smartphone.
Musk embraces competition, never hides his ambition, and demonstrates little concern regarding political niceties. After last week’s GPT-5 announcement, Musk posted on X almost continuously, asserting that his Grok-4 is the industry’s top performing model, stating that it’s more advanced than even GPT-5.
It’s against this background, that Musk’s frustration boiled to the surface following ChatGPT’s continued dominance within Apple’s App Store recommendation algorithms, while Grok languished without Apple’s promotional assistance. Musk’s subsequent tirade accused Apple of unfairly favoring partner OpenAI, covertly obstructing competitors.
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Musk’s accusations have been met with fierce rebuttals, unsurprisingly, from OpenAI.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sarcastically reposted Musk’s X post: “Given many of the claims I’ve heard about how Musk manipulates X to benefit himself and his companies, and to hurt competitors and people he doesn’t like, this is an interesting allegation”.
Altman also reposted a 2023 article, revealing that Musk had allegedly tweaked the X algorithm to ensure that his own posts were prioritized for all users.
Furthermore, in June, Grok was observed consulting Musk’s personal views before answering sensitive questions about issues such as Palestine, immigration, and abortion.
Musk responded to Altman’s post with fury, saying, “Your BS post has 3 million views, you scammer, even though my post reached far fewer viewers in comparison, despite being followed by 50x more users”.
Altman retorted, stating: “Sign an affidavit that you never ordered X to manipulate your algorithms to target competitors or to help yourself. If you sign it, I will apologize.”
Adding further fuel to the fire, Musk’s own Grok turned on him. “Based upon verifiable evidence, Altman is correct.” “Musk’s antitrust accusations toward Apple are unsustainable, since DeepSeek and Perplexity both reached the heights of the App Store this year. Furthermore, Musk has previously given the order to manipulate X’s algorithms, to assist in promoting his own posts and align them with his interests”.
Using the word “hypocritical” to describe Musk, Grok’s response garnered over 1.5 million views.
From a different perspective though, Grok’s lack of allegiance could be seen as an argument that Grok possesses objectivity and doesn’t simply regurgitate the biases of its owner, whatever those biases may be.
Seeking to regain credibility, Musk posted a screenshot of his chat with ChatGPT. Musk had asked ChatGPT which person deserved more trust, Altman or Musk. ChatGPT answered: “Musk”.
Ironically, when the same question was posed to Grok, Grok favored Altman.
Musk’s Longstanding Gripes with Apple
While the dueling robots might provide the most amusing twist, Musk’s grievances with Apple are long and well-documented.
When Apple secretly created a car-building team, attempting to poach Tesla employees in 2013, Musk scoffed: “Apple is a Tesla graveyard. If you don’t make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple.”
Recounting his story in 2018, Musk revealed that when Tesla faced production challenges surrounding the Model 3, enduring significant public short-selling pressure, Musk reached out to make a bid for Apple to purchase Tesla for $70 Billion. Musk revealed that Apple CEO Tim Cook refused to meet with him.
When Tesla’s value skyrocketed at the end of 2020, and Musk made his debut as the wealthiest person alive, he expressed feelings of “look who’s laughing now”.
Cook has since been dismissive about the claim, stating he has never communicated with Musk, expressing respect for Tesla but lacking any recollection of the purchase proposal.
After spending $44B to acquire Twitter back in 2022, Musk made an initiative to completely restructure the politically influential platform. In its current form, the formerly “Twitter” is called X.
Musk downsized X’s workforce drastically, cutting almost 80% of the original staff. Citing that the move was done for “the safeguarding of Free Speech,” Musk lifted content moderation policies, re-enabling thousands of once-banned, Conservative accounts—with the most discussed being the return of President Trump.
X had numerous incidents involving Antisemitism that were either allowed to spread, or were even committed directly by Elon Musk in his personal account. As such, X saw many prominent advertisers leave the platform in droves, costing the company half of its operating revenue. Disney, Apple, and many more, either stopped advertising or severely reduced their amount of impressions.
In an open public discussion, Musk lashed out directly at Disney CEO Bob Iger, blaming him for attempted blackmail through business tactics.
Whereas, Cook took a different approach. Extending an invitation to Musk to come to Apple HQ, Cook managed to clear any misunderstandings and disarm Musk, diffusing the tension and securing Apple’s subsequent return for advertising efforts. Tesla also restored Apple Music compatibility with their vehicles’ entertainment systems.
Musk’s ire does seem to abate as quickly as it ignites. Hours ago, Musk cheerfully reposted an X update: “Grok ranks second on the productivity charts within multiple countries on the App Store. Thank you for your support!”
As for legal action against Apple; it seems that for now, Musk is quiet on the matter.
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Original article, Author: Tobias. If you wish to reprint this article, please indicate the source:https://aicnbc.com/7124.html
