Elon Musk rants about Apple-OpenAI partnership in series of viral tweets: 'Unacceptable security violation'

Amidst the numerous announcements at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2024, the partnership between Apple and OpenAI has sparked significant controversy, particularly drawing criticism from tech magnate Elon Musk.

Taking to his platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Musk expressed strong disapproval of Apple's integration of OpenAI's ChatGPT into its operating systems. In a series of posts, Musk declared that he would ban Apple devices at his companies if the integration goes ahead, calling it "an unacceptable security violation." He also mentioned that visitors to his companies—such as SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, The Boring Company, and xAI—would need to check their Apple devices at the door, where they would be stored in a Faraday cage to prevent any data transmission.

Musk's tweets further condemned the partnership, questioning Apple's privacy and safety measures. He wrote, "Apple has no clue what’s actually going on once they hand your data over to OpenAI. They’re selling you down the river."

He also directly addressed Apple CEO Tim Cook in a reply, stating, "Either stop this creepy spyware or all Apple devices will be banned from the premises of my companies."

The billionaire even shared an Indian meme, which was the poster of a film called "Thappattam" to take a jibe at Apple over its partnership with OpenAI. The meme in question humourously illustrated "How intelligence works" with an image of a man and a woman sharing coconut water, accompanied by text discussing Apple's integration of OpenAI and the associated risks of privacy breaches.