Elon Musk has acted on his intention to sue Apple for prioritizing ChatGPT over Grok in the App Store. On Monday, Musk’s AI firm xAI initiated legal action against Apple and OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, regarding their business collaboration.
“This narrative involves two monopolists collaborating to secure their persistent supremacy in a world swiftly propelled by the most potent technology humanity has ever invented: artificial intelligence,” states the introduction of xAI’s lawsuit. “By working together, Defendants Apple and OpenAI have constrained markets to sustain their monopolies and hinder innovators such as X and xAI from competing,” the suit adds.
xAI asserts that Apple favors ChatGPT in the App Store, to the disadvantage of rival AI applications like xAI’s Grok. “Apple has taken additional measures to safeguard its monopoly in smartphones and to favor OpenAI by deprioritizing the applications of opposing generative AI chatbots and super apps in its App Store rankings, and it has prolonged its App Store app review processes for those rivals,” the lawsuit claims.
xAI’s legal filing also contends that Apple and OpenAI are participating in monopolistic practices on a broader scale. According to xAI, Apple’s alliance with OpenAI, which involves incorporating ChatGPT into Mac and iOS devices, has sidelined Musk’s company from the AI competition. “Due to the exclusive arrangement between Apple and OpenAI, ChatGPT is the sole generative AI chatbot that benefits from billions of user prompts originating from hundreds of millions of iPhones,” states xAI’s lawsuit. “This complicates the capability of ChatGPT’s generative AI chatbot and super apps powered by generative AI chatbots’ competitors to grow and innovate.”
Before the lawsuit, Musk stated on his social media platform X that it was “impossible for any AI company other than OpenAI to achieve #1 in the App Store.” However, users on Musk’s platform challenged this through X’s Community Notes feature, illustrating that OpenAI’s rivals like DeepSeek and Perplexity have all attained #1 in the App Store, even subsequent to the establishment of the Apple and OpenAI partnership.
A recent antitrust ruling may be beneficial to Musk. Last year, Google faced a defeat in an antitrust lawsuit concerning its paid affiliation with Apple, which granted Google the default search engine position on Apple’s mobile devices. Although distinctions exist between Apple’s relations with both companies, that case could prove relevant here.
So, does Musk and xAI have a valid case, or is he merely discontented that his cherished Grok app hasn’t gained traction like its AI rivals? We will soon discover as this unfolds in court.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent organization, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April, alleging copyright infringement in the training and operation of its AI systems.