Apple rejects an accusation from Elon Musk that the App Store is curbing its competitiveness, claiming it is “designed to be free and fair.”
X-owner Musk threatened Apple with legal action after claiming that the app had become “impossible” to compete with ChatGpt-Maker Openai in the store.
He also called Open boss Sam Altman a “liar” – after Altman claimed that Musk would use his platform to “promote himself and his own company.”
The row is the latest flashpoint, a continuing feud among the billionaires who co-founded Openry, but now they're fiercely competing after Musk left the company.
Apple announced its partnership with ChatGPT in June 2024, but there is no suggestion that Apple prefers one app over the other. Since then, several rival AI apps such as Deepseek and Prperxity have surpassed the App Store chart.
In a statement sent to the BBC, Apple said: “We showcase thousands of apps via curation lists selected by experts using charts, algorithmic recommendations, and objective criteria.”
In a later post, Musk once again targeted Apple and asked the company why he wouldn't promote X or its AI app Grok in the “required” section of the App Store.
“X is the number one news app in the world and Grok is number five of all apps,” he said in a post pinned to the X profile.
ChatGpt is currently the UK's most downloaded free app, with Grok being nearly a third. X doesn't create a top 40.
This appeared to attract the attention of Altman, who linked to a report from Tech Newsletter Platformer, which Musk claimed to have made his personal X posts more prominent in people's feeds.
The feud between Musk and Altman has encompassed many lawsuits, email dumps and social media excavations over time.
Their rivalry can go back ten years. Open now has the belief of the public that, under Altman's guidance, he and others abandoned the principles they found it in 2015.
The company was created with the intention of building artificial general information (AGI) – AI that can perform any task that humans can do – but by making its technology open source and committing to “benefit humanity.”
Openai was also established as a non-profit company. In other words, although they don't aim to make money, in 2019 they established a for-profit arm that Musk felt was against the original mission.
Musk argued in a March 2024 lawsuit that the company instead focused on “maximizing profits” from major investors Microsoft.
And although he unexpectedly dropped the lawsuit last year, the Open filed an anti-suit against him in April.
The X owners claimed they had “nonstop” in “bad faith tactics” in an attempt to slow down the company's AI development.
Openai also argues that Musk is not motivated by maintaining the company's founding mission – rather, by his “owner agenda.”
And the feud doesn't stop with words and legal action alone. In February, Musk was shocked to buy the company for $100 million (£74 billion). This was rejected by the Openai board of directors.
The BBC approached Apple for comment.
