Two Elon Musk-backed businesses have officially sued Apple and OpenAI, accusing them of joining forces illegally to block threats from potential competitors.
The lawsuit, filed in the US by X and xAI, is targeting Apple’s decision to integrate OpenAI’s chatbot into the operating systems of its smartphones, an exclusive arrangement that it says violated competition law.
Musk earlier alleged that Apple favoured OpenAI in its app store rankings.
In the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Texas, Musk’s firms claim “there is no valid business reason for the Apple-OpenAI deal to be exclusive” – arguing that the 2024 arrangement has made it harder to compete and gave OpenAI access to the prompts and activity of millions of Apple customers.
“The Apple-OpenAI arrangement has foreclosed competition among generative AI chatbots, deprived competing generative AI chatbots of scale, and reduced quality and innovation,” the two companies said in the lawsuit. “All of these impacts have, in turn, helped OpenAI and Apple maintain their monopolies.”
OpenAI controls roughly 80% of the generative AI chatbot market in the US, according to the lawsuit, while Apple claims about 65% of the smartphone market.
Apple has previously defended its app store practices, saying they were “fair and free of bias”.
BBC/Jide Johnson.