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Elon Musk Threatens to Ban Employees from Using Apple Products, Says Will Lock Devices in 'Cages' The Tesla founder sounded off on X following Apple's 2024 Worldwide Developer Conference on Monday.

By Emily Rella Edited by Melissa Malamut

Key Takeaways

  • Elon Musk is threatening to ban Apple products at all of his companies after hearing the news of OpenAI technology being integrated into Apple products. 
  • Musk posted on X: "Apple has no clue what's actually going on once they hand your data over to OpenAI."

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Elon Musk has a contentious relationship with AI technology — he helped to cofound OpenAI beside Sam Altman before their famous falling out and signed an open letter asking for a "pause" on AI development. Then, in November 2023, Musk launched a chatbot through his x.AI company called Grok, available for premium X users.

But after Apple revealed during Monday's 2024 Worldwide Developer Conference that OpenAI and its software will be integrated into new Apple products, Musk is threatening to ban Apple products at all of his companies.

Related: Elon Musk Sues ChatGPT-Maker OpenAI, Accuses the Company of Working to 'Maximize Profits For Microsoft, Rather Than For the Benefit of Humanity'

In response to the presentation, Musk posted a series of thoughts on his social media platform X, noting that employees at Tesla and X would have to check their devices into a "cage" upon entering the office if they used Apple for any of their personal devices.

"It's patently absurd that Apple isn't smart enough to make their own AI, yet is somehow capable of ensuring that OpenAI will protect your security & privacy," Musk penned in one post. "Apple has no clue what's actually going on once they hand your data over to OpenAI. They're selling you down the river."

Musk then reposted a clip of a sit-down interview he had with Walter Isaacson for Vanity Fair in 2014, where he warned about the "rise and dangers" of AI before he joined forces with Altman to launch what would become Open AI.

"I don't think most people understand just how quickly machine intelligence is advancing," the billionaire cautioned. "If there's some digital super-intelligence, and its optimization or utility function is something that's detrimental to humanity, then it would have a very bad effect."

Musk infamously sued Altman and OpenAI in March claiming the company is no longer working on its founding principles to work towards the greater "benefit of humanity" and instead has shifted to a for-profit focus.

The suit claims OpenAI did this through its agreement with Microsoft and the release of Chat GPT-4.

Related: Elon Musk's Newest AI Chatbot Outperformed ChatGPT in One Key Area

"Under its new Board, [OpenAI] is not just developing but is actually refining an AGI [Artificial General Intelligence] to maximize profits for Microsoft, rather than for the benefit of humanity," the lawsuit stated.

In response, OpenAI released an open letter slamming the "frivolous" lawsuit.

"Musk's claims rest on convoluted – often incoherent – factual premises," the company said at the time. "Musk says his Founding Agreement was 'memorialized,' but any actual agreement is conspicuously missing from the pleading."

Emily Rella

Senior News Writer

Emily Rella is a Senior News Writer at Entrepreneur.com. Previously, she was an editor at Verizon Media. Her coverage spans features, business, lifestyle, tech, entertainment, and lifestyle. She is a 2015 graduate of Boston College and a Ridgefield, CT native. Find her on Twitter at @EmilyKRella.

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