Last night, Elon Musk took to X to complain about the fact that Apple never seems to feature either X or Grok on the App Store. He claimed the company was unfairly favoring ChatGPT, and said xAI would take “immediate legal action”. Today, Apple responded.
Apple highlights safety as a feature criteria
In a statement to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple said:
Musk’s claims came after he grew frustrated that, despite the X app topping the News chart yesterday, it never seemed to be featured on the App Store, apparently making it harder to climb the overall rankings.
Likewise, over the past few days, and despite launching new features and making Grok 4 free for all users, the Grok app only reached fifth place overall and second in the Productivity category.
Top comment by Mark Langston
If Musk actually files this suit, which I doubt he will, he'll be open to discovery, meaning his business practices will be under scrutiny and could reveal a lot of dirty laundry and secrets he may not want revealed.
Let's keep in mind that Musk tweeted that Trump was in the Epstein files, which means he knowingly worked for, campaigned with, shilled for and funded a presidential campaign in the hundreds of millions for a PDF.
Anyway, this is just the tweet of the day and won't go any further.
By contrast, he claimed that Apple’s constant promotion of ChatGPT made it “impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store,” a claim quickly and easily debunked by xAI’s own Grok, following a heated exchange between Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman:
As for the lawsuit, despite Musk’s promise of “immediate legal action” by xAI, no suit appears to have been filed today.
Apple’s statement to Gurman suggests it’s taking the threat seriously, but its pointed use of the word “safe” is a not-so-subtle nod to Grok’s recent controversies (including antisemitic content and the release of sexualized companion chatbots), which may disqualify it as a recommendation-worthy app in the company’s view.
What did you think of Apple’s response to Musk’s threat? Let us know in the comments.
AirPods deals on Amazon
- AirPods Max, USB-C Charging: $479.99 ($549 off)
- AirPods Pro 2, USB-C Charging: $169 ($80 off)
- AirPods 4 USB-C Charging: $99 (was $129)
- AirPods 4, USB-C and Wireless Charging: $148.99 (was $179)
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments