It’s not often that you see a phrase like “their anticompetitive scheme” turn up in a legal context. And yet that trio of words has a prominent position in a lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Texas this week, arguing that Apple and OpenAI engaged in illicit behavior to stifle one of their competitors: the Elon Musk-run xAI.
The lawsuit, brought by xAI, names both Apple and OpenAI as defendants and argues that the two companies acted improperly by making ChatGPT “the only generative AI chatbot integrated into the iPhone.” In an article on the lawsuit for Reuters, Mike Scarcella noted that this lawsuit came in the wake of Musk posting about his frustration over OpenAI’s position on Apple’s App Store charts.
Apple has understandably not responded to a Musk post critiquing Grok’s position in the App Store. That said, there are a few recent issues with Grok — the “MechaHitler” post, Grok’s ability to “undress” images of women — that make Apple’s reticence to go all-in on the app understandable.
The legal filing also contains a fair amount of boosterism for Musk’s companies, including passages like this: “[S]uper apps, like those being developed by X and xAI, stand ready to upend the smartphone market and Apple’s entrenched monopoly in it.”
Elon Musk’s xAI Just Acquired Elon Musk’s X
The groundwork for this has been in the works for a while nowThis lawsuit is the latest installment in what’s been a highly litigious period for Musk. Late in 2023, X filed a lawsuit against the nonprofit group Media Matters; the lawsuit has been one of multiple factors that have seriously damaged the group. Earlier this year, X sued a number of companies, arguing that the companies were wrong for refraning to advertise on the social network in question.
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