The ongoing conflict between US billionaire musk and Altmann, founder of artificial intelligence company OpenAI, has once again come to court. Musk’s artificial intelligence company XAI and social media platform X sued Apple and OpenAI in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, on Monday, local time, according to multiple media reports on the 25th, it said apple and OpenAI“Colluded” to maintain their dominance of the smartphone and generative AI markets. Xai is seeking billions of dollars in damages and a court injunction to prevent Apple and OpenAI from continuing what it calls an“Illegal arrangement.”.
According to Bloomberg, Musk’s lawyers said that Apple’s“Exclusive arrangement with OpenAI makes CHATGPT the only AI-enabled chat bot integrated into the iPhone”, and“Locked in the market to maintain their monopoly and prevent innovators like X and Xai from competing”. The allegations come after the release of the latest version of Xai’s AI chatbot Grok. The New York Times reported that musk had initially boasted about the chatbot’s excellent ranking in the App Store, but when it failed to top the list of downloads, musk claimed on the X that apple had“Proven antitrust violations” and added that apple had“Taken actions that make it impossible for any AI company other than OpenAI to top the App Store.”.
Bloomberg has noted similarities between the latest lawsuit against Apple and the Justice Department’s allegations against the company. The U.S. Department of Justice 2023 Apple in federal court in New Jersey, accusing the company of using its strength in APP distribution to block innovation and, in particular, the emergence of so-called “Super Apps.”, avoid consumers switching to other devices because they are less dependent on Apple devices.
Xai, less than two years old, is in fierce competition with microsoft-backed OpenAI. In February, Elon Musk led an investor group that rejected a $97.4 bn bid for OpenAI. The legal battle between Musk and OpenAI has been a rocky one since last year, when Elon Musk sued OpenAI and its chief executive, Altmann, in federal court in California, trying to prevent it from nonprofit organization into a for-profit business. OpenAI has been calling Musk’s legal battle against it“Harassment.”. In the wake of Monday’s lawsuit, an OpenAI spokesman said the move was consistent with Musk’s continuing“Harassment model.”.
Some antitrust experts told Reuters that Apple’s real dominance of the smartphone market might lend some weight to Elon Musk’s latest lawsuit. However, Apple also has a defense, because working with OpenAI is a business decision made in a competitive business environment, and Apple has no obligation to help any competitor gain market share. Notably, the lawsuit could give US courts the opportunity to assess for the first time whether AI has a defined market and its size, a key threshold issue for antitrust litigation.