Musk Threatens to Ban Apple From His Companies After OpenAI Deal
The Facts
Elon Musk on Monday said that in light of the new partnership between Apple and OpenAI, he would potentially ban Apple devices from his companies. Musk would do so over what he says are privacy and security concerns.
Earlier that day, Apple announced plans to integrate OpenAI's flagship product, ChatGPT, into the operating system of their iPhone and Mac devices, also noting that personal data would not be collected by the AI system.
The Spin
Narrative A
Musk's claims are clearly an expression of grievance and jealousy against the company he co-founded. Musk was even fact-checked on his own platform over his misrepresentations of the Apple announcement. User data is to be stored locally or on a private cloud, and is not being fed to OpenAI, which makes this recent pronouncement nothing but fearmongering to damage a business rival.
Narrative B
OpenAI does not have the same privacy track record as Apple, and that weak link could validate Musk's fears of these devices being compromised. Data is gold to companies that train AI models, and aggregated data, even if it's anonymized, could prove too tempting for OpenAI to resist. There is reason to be concerned about this blockbuster partnership.
