Elon Musk has warned that he will ban iPhones from all of his company's products over the new OpenAI integration that Apple announced on Monday at WWDC 2024. In a series of posts about X, the Tesla, SpaceX and xAI executive wrote that “if Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level,” Apple devices will be banned from his business, visitors will have to leave their Apple devices at the door and they will be “kept in a Faraday cage.”
Musk's post appears to misinterpret Apple's announced relationship with OpenAI, or at the very least, to blur the issue and leave user privacy open to doubt. While both Apple and OpenAI have said they ask users questions before any questions, documents, or photos are sent to ChatGPT, Musk's response suggests he believes OpenAI is deeply integrated into Apple's operating system itself, allowing it to siphon off any and all personal and private data.
In iOS 18, users will be able to ask Siri questions, and if the assistant thinks ChatGPT would be helpful, it will ask for permission to share the question and provide a direct answer, Apple said. This allows users to get answers from ChatGPT without having to open the ChatGPT iOS app. The same goes for photos, PDFs, and other documents you want to send to ChatGPT.
But Musk would prefer that OpenAI's features remain tied to its own app, rather than being integrated with Siri.
Sam Pullara, venture capitalist and chief technology officer at Sutter Hill Ventures, wrote that users approve each specific request and that OpenAI does not have access to the device, to which Musk responded, “Then leave it in the app. This is bullshit.”
Pulla said ChatGPT's integration method will be essentially the same as how the ChatGPT app works today: The on-device AI models will either be Apple's own or will use Apple's private cloud.
Meanwhile, responding to an X post from YouTuber Marques Brownlee that went into more detail about Apple Intelligence, Musk countered that “Apple uses the words 'protecting privacy' while handing over user data to third-party AI they don't understand and can't create is not protecting privacy at all.”
He also responded to a post in which Apple CEO Tim Cook threatened to ban Apple devices from his company's premises “if they don't stop this creepy spyware.”
“It's patently absurd that Apple can guarantee that OpenAI will protect users' security and privacy when they're not smart enough to build their own AI,” Musk exclaimed in one of many posts about the new integration. “Apple has no idea what's actually going to happen once they hand over users' data to OpenAI. They're deceiving users,” he said. While it's true that Apple doesn't know the inner workings of OpenAI, strictly speaking Apple isn't handing over the data; from what we're hearing, users are making that choice.
Apple also announced another integration that will give users system-wide access to ChatGPT within Writing Tools via the “Create” feature. For example, you can have ChatGPT write a bedtime story for your child in your document, Apple suggests. You can also have ChatGPT create images in different styles to complement your writing. These features allow users to access ChatGPT for free without the hassle of creating an account. This is great news for OpenAI, which will soon be inundated with requests from Apple users.
Of course, Apple users may not understand the nuances of the privacy issues here, but Musk is counting on them with these complaints: if users could set up their preferred AI bots, like Anthropic's Claude or xAI's Grok, to rely on for Siri requests and writing help, Musk probably wouldn't be so vocal about the dangers of such integrations.
In its announcement, Apple said that user requests and information will not be logged, but ChatGPT subscribers can connect their accounts to access paid features directly within Apple's AI experience.
“Of course, users have control over when ChatGPT is used and information is reviewed before it's shared. ChatGPT integration will be coming to iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia later this year,” Craig Federighi, Apple's SVP of Software Engineering, said during a keynote address at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday.
OpenAI reiterated as much in a blog post, stating that “requests are not stored by OpenAI and users' IP addresses are hidden. Users can also choose to connect their ChatGPT account, meaning their data settings will apply according to ChatGPT's policies.” The latter refers to the optional (opt-in) feature of connecting this feature to a paid subscription.