Written by: Du Yu
Source: Wall Street Journal
On Monday, June 10, Apple's annual WWDC Global Developers Conference integrated AI functions into the operating systems of mainstream hardware devices such as iPhone, Mac and iPad as scheduled, especially the ability to ask questions to ChatGPT through the Siri smart assistant.
Tesla CEO Musk, who has had many conflicts with OpenAI, the parent company behind ChatGPT's generative AI chatbot, has been unhappy with this. He frequently posted on his social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to warn Apple not to integrate ChatGPT into its operating system:
“If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, Apple devices will be banned from all my companies. This is an unacceptable security violation.
Visitors (to my company) must check their Apple devices at the door, where they will be stored in a Faraday cage. (Note from Wall Street: A Faraday cage is a metal enclosure that prevents electromagnetic fields from entering or escaping.)
It’s patently absurd that Apple, which isn’t smart enough to make its own AI, can ensure that OpenAI protects the security and privacy of its users! There’s no telling what happens to your data once Apple hands it over to OpenAI. They’re selling you out.”
Musk shared a picture of an Indian couple looking at each other lovingly. The woman was labeled "Apple" and the man was labeled "OpenAI". The two were sharing the juice of a coconut labeled "iPhone" and the juice was labeled "user data". The name of the whole picture is "How Apple Intelligence Works".
Musk said the problem with "agreeing" to share data is that no one actually reads these user terms and conditions, so users may be betrayed without knowing it.
He also forwarded a post from a netizen saying that Hollywood actor Scarlett Johansson had told OpenAI not to use her voice, but the latter still highly imitated and used it. "Now imagine what they can do with your mobile phone data even if you don't allow them to use it." Musk replied, "That's it!" He also called OpenAI a creepy spyware.
The "subsidiaries" mentioned by Musk should include Tesla, space transportation company SpaceX, OpenAI's potential competitor xAI, brain-computer interface startup Neuralink, and tunnel startup Boring Company. As of December 31 last year, Musk's largest company, electric car giant Tesla, had more than 140,000 employees worldwide.
In March this year, Musk sued OpenAI and its CEO Altman and others, accusing them of abandoning their founding mission of "developing artificial intelligence for the benefit of mankind" and intending to change the NGO into a for-profit organization. Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015, but resigned as a director in 2018, and has since criticized OpenAI for being irresponsible in developing AI.
Musk's company xAI, which competes directly with OpenAI, raised $6 billion in its latest Series B round of financing, valuing the company at about $24 billion. xAI's product is also a generative chatbot called Grok. In February of this year, OpenAI's valuation had jumped to $80 billion, making it the world's third-highest-valued tech startup, second only to ByteDance and SpaceX.
