The events of Apple’s WWDC 2024 still seem to leave trails, especially with the company’s announcement about its new push into the world of AI. One individual who seems to have not taken this news well is Elon Musk who has let everyone know about his feelings towards the partnership between Apple and artificial intelligence firm, OpenAI.
In a series of posts since the event, Elon Musk wrote on social media platform X his very clear concerns adding that OpenAI’s tech into Apple’s systems “is an unacceptable security violation.” According to Musk, OpenAI is a company that cannot be trusted to protect Apple’s customers’ security and privacy.
He went even further threatening to ban employees of all his companies including X and SpaceX from taking Apple devices into their workplaces.
“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!” Musk wrote on X. “Apple has no clue what’s actually going on once they hand your data over to OpenAI. They’re selling you down the river.”
During the WWDC event, Apple emphasized that its users’ personal data would remain private, even as the iPhone maker integrates AI into operating systems including iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia. The tech giant said it won’t collect data on users or search their personal data stored on their devices when they use the AI system.
The partnership with OpenAI is meant to offer a huge overhaul to Apple’s Siri, which has seemingly been neglected and left behind by its rival models such as Google Assistant.
It was quite clear that the company wanted to emphasise its privacy policies being kept intact despite this partnership. The statement was reiterated by Apple’s CEO Tim Cook and senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi on several occasions.
OpenAI vs Elon Musk
Elon Musk himself has been a huge player in the world of artificial intelligence as he actually founded OpenAI back in 2015 but stepped down from its board in 2018. He then started building another rival AI company, xAI. So we could say that it’s not that he’s not a fan of this technology that is taking the industry by storm.
It could be that he doesn’t trust OpenAI at all seeing that he has had a history of conflict with the company since he left. In March, he announced he was suing the company and its CEO Sam Altman for undermining what Musk says was the company’s original goal of developing an open-source AI that would “benefit humanity” in favor of making more money. OpenAI responded in a blog post stating it “intend(s) to move to dismiss all of Elon’s claims.”
So, Apple will have to prove alot to make sure Musk’s employees, who are over 100,000 on X and SpaceX alone, don’t get this harsh workplace treatment.
