Elon Musk accuses Apple of making it “impossible” for AI rivals to surpass OpenAI in App Store rankings.
Sam Altman responds, pointing to alleged manipulations by Musk to benefit his own companies.
Sensor Tower data shows ChatGPT leading App Store and Google Play rankings, with xAI’s Grok in fifth place.
OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman has finally issued an official statement soon after Elon Musk claimed that Apple is preferring OpenAI to its App Store rankings. Taking to X, he officially dismissed the allegations and called the claim as remarkable in the light of reported accusations about Musk’s own business practices.
SurveyElon Musk, who has been a prominent name in tech industry for many years, said on Monday that xAI would take legal action against Apple, accusing the iPhone maker of violating antitrust rules by making it “impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1” in the App Store. “xAI will take immediate legal action,” Musk wrote on his social platform X.
On X, OpenAI boss stated that, “This is a remarkable claim given what I have heard alleged that Elon does to manipulate X to benefit himself and his own companies and harm his competitors and people he doesn’t like.”
It must be noted that Elon Musk has not provided any evidence for his claims. As per the data from analytics firm Sensor Tower as cited by Reuters, OpenAI’s ChatGPT app topped on the App Store’s Top Free Apps list in the US. The xAI Grok ranked fifth and Google’s Gemini was placed on the 57th rank. Interestingly, the ChatGPT app also leads the Google Play Store rankings.
Also read: Sam Altman admits killing GPT-4o after GPT-5 launch was a mistake: Here’s why
For the unversed, Apple has partnered with the AI startup to integrate ChatGPT into its devices, including the iPhones, iPads and Macs. Previously, Elon Musk has also raised questions about why Apple’s Must Have section exclude both X and Grok despite their high chart positions, suggesting a bias.
On the other hand, Apple has not officially responded to the statement on the ongoing conflict.
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Ashish Singh
Ashish Singh is the Chief Copy Editor at Digit. He's been wrangling tech jargon since 2020 (Times Internet, Jagran English '22). When not policing commas, he's likely fueling his gadget habit with coffee, strategising his next virtual race, or plotting a road trip to test the latest in-car tech. He speaks fluent Geek. View Full Profile
