Elon Musk Says He’ll Ban iPhones For Staff If Apple Integrates ChatGPT Into Its Devices

Billionaire Elon Musk on Monday threatened to ban Apple devices for employees at any of his companies over a newly announced partnership between the tech giant and OpenAI, which will involve the integration of the powerful ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot into Apple’s operating systems later this year.

“Apple shares our commitment to safety and innovation, and this partnership aligns with OpenAI’s mission to make advanced AI accessible to everyone,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement. “Together with Apple, we’re making it easier for people to benefit from what AI can offer.”

Musk, one of the co-founders of OpenAI who has recently turned into one of the company’s harshest critics, does not appear to share Altman’s enthusiasm as he slammed the collaboration in a series of posts on his X platform, formerly Twitter.

“If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, then Apple devices will be banned at my companies,” he wrote. “That is an unacceptable security violation.”

In a follow-up post, Musk added that any people visiting his companies will be required “to check their Apple devices at the door, where they will be stored in a Faraday cage,” which blocks electromagnetic fields.

He also replied to a post by Apple CEO Tim Cook, calling on him to “stop this creepy spyware.”

Apple did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

The Cupertino-based company announced the new partnership at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, where it introduced “Apple Intelligence,” a new personal intelligence system that puts generative models at the core of iPhone, iPads and Macs.

Craig Federighi, senior vice president for software engineering at Apple, said user privacy remains a top priority for the company.

“The cornerstone of the personal intelligence system is on-device processing,” Federighi said.

“It’s aware of your personal data without collecting your personal data,” he continued.

As part of Apple Intelligence, users will have access to ChatGPT, through Siri and systemwide Writing Tools, for free and without having to create an account.

Federighi noted that users will be in control over whether ChatGPT is used on their devices and will be asked before any of their information is shared. Besides, their IP addresses will be obscured and any requests won’t be stored by OpenAI.

But Musk appeared skeptical of how Apple would be able to maintain its commitment to privacy through this partnership.

“Apple has no clue what’s actually going on once they hand your data over to OpenAI,” he wrote in another post. “They’re selling you down the river.”

Musk sued OpenAI and Altman in late February, claiming OpenAI has gone back on its original mission of benefiting humanity over its ties to Microsoft.

“Under its new Board, it is not just developing but is actually refining an [artificial general intelligence] to maximize profits for Microsoft, rather than for the benefit of humanity,” the lawsuit states.

Notably, Musk in November launched a competitor to ChatGPT dubbed Grok through his xAI startup. Grok is available to those who have registered for an X premium subscription.

Apart from X and xAI, Musk also owns Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and The Boring Company.