Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, has formally sued tech titans Apple and OpenAI. The two companies are currently being sued in a Texas federal court. They are being sued by their competitors for allegedly engineering a conspiracy to dominate the artificial intelligence field. This lawsuit marks a major step-up in Musk’s current warfare with the companies. In particular, it calls attention to the harm they pose to competition with respect to generative AI.
Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015, left the organization in 2018 over disagreements on its direction and mission. In 2023, he started xAI with the purpose of developing AI technologies and growing them in an ethical manner. The present case puts an unusual spin on an Apple/OpenAI exclusive deal. In a complaint against the deal, Musk claims this acquisition reduces chances for competitors of ChatGPT maker OpenAI to reach millions of future customers.
The lawsuit states that the collaboration between Apple and OpenAI creates barriers for competition, asserting that “more users beget more prompts, and more prompts offer more opportunities to train the model, whose better features then attract even more users.” The reason for this assertion is Musk’s concern that this kind of exclusivity would be anti-competitive and harmful to innovation throughout the AI ecosystem.
Musk’s lawsuit seeks to “stop Defendants from perpetrating their anticompetitive scheme and to recover billions in damages.” The legal action comes at a time when Apple has recently unveiled a suite of customizable generative AI tools, including a language feature and an image generator. Furthermore, Apple’s collaboration with OpenAI has resulted in enhanced AI capabilities on iPhones, raising concerns regarding market accessibility for competitors like xAI.
For his part, OpenAI has been somewhat quick to respond to Musk’s continued accusations. Last year, the company defended its position by arguing that establishing a for-profit entity was essential to develop high-powered AI technologies. In its legal response to the new lawsuit, OpenAI called Musk’s behavior “in line with Mr. Musk’s already established course of stalking and harassment.”
For additional context, xAI also recently released Grok, an AI chatbot. It’s certainly a smart ploy to get users hooked on Musk’s social media platform, X. In conclusion, Grok seeks to deliver a truly memorable experience for users while demonstrating what xAI is capable of in the crowded AI space.
The recent, surprise announcement of GPT-5 from OpenAI further muddies the waters. This landmark development is fueling leaps in improvement with ChatGPT, and accelerating the race between AI companies to develop superior products. As the world’s richest person, Musk’s legal pursuits are influential and hold considerable industry-shaping power.
