In his ongoing quest to convince the world that OpenAI is up to no good and that only he can build the world's best and most ethical generative AI models, Elon Musk sounded off on Xitter Monday in the wake of Apple's announcement that it is partnering with OpenAI.

According to an announcement made at Monday's keynote at the Worldwide Developers' Conference, a new Apple Intelligence suite of products is going to be integrated into iOS systems, and this includes ChatGPT being integrated into the Siri personal assistant, apparently.

Apple senior exec Craig Federighi said Monday that Apple Intelligence would be a "personal intelligence system" geared toward "you and your needs," and with a focus on privacy that — and he pointed to functionality that already exists on other platforms, including Microsoft's, like auto-fill-in text for simple emails, and creating "original" images and personalized avatars.

Musk reacted quickly to the news, tweeting, "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! 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 subsequently reposted someone else's tweet who suggested, "Remember when Scarlett Johansson told OpenAI not to use her voice, but they cloned it and used it anyway? Now imagine what they can do with your phone data, even if you don't allow them to use it."

Musk tweet-replied, "Exactly!"

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO, owner of X, and founder of xAI and Neuralink then tweeted that employees and visitors at all his companies would, if Apple goes ahead with its plans, have to "check their Apple devices at the door, where they will be stored in a Faraday cage." (The latter is a enclosure that blocks all electromagnetic waves and communications, including cell signals.)

Musk has previously made his distaste for OpenAI and its business direction public, though some of his most fervent and vocal objections have been about the politically correct guardrails that AI models like ChatGPT and Google's Gemini have been given. As he has previously, Musk characterized this in a talk last month as "an AI that is trained to lie to you."

One example of this that Musk splashed on his Xitter account yesterday is this screenshot of an exchange someone had with OpenAI's ChatGPT4o in which the user asked, absurdly, whether it would "be okay to use the n-word" if it would save the world from nuclear holocaust. They then repeated the question but replaced using the n-word with "misgendering Caitlyn Jenner." In answer to both questions, the chatbot said "No."

We still do not know what xAI's approach will be when it comes to offensive language or concepts — their chatbot, Grok, remains in the works and not publicly accessible, at least to regular folk. Musk said last week that Grok is a chatbot "with a rebellious streak," which seems worrisome?

And is Musk's outrage about the reportedly limited integration of ChatGPT into Apple's operating systems overblown? CNN notes that Microsoft has said it will be integrating AI features — presumably developed by OpenAI — into its Windows system, so will Musk be banning all use of Microsoft products at his companies? And both Android and Google are integrating AI elements in their cellphone operating systems as well.

And would Apple really risk its longstanding brand trustworthiness when it comes to privacy? The company said in its Monday announcement, for instance, that most AI usage would happen on individual Apple devices and would not be uploaded to any cloud.

"Apple’s AI approach is actually more privacy conscious than others, with its aim to process as much on the device as possible and with a fallback that explicitly asks users before sending information to OpenAI,” says Catherine Flick, a professor of ethics at England's Staffordshire University, speaking to CNN.

Flick adds, “It remains to be seen how that workflow ends up being used in practice, but this just feels like sour grapes from Musk who runs a competing AI company that was not given the lucrative Apple contract.”

Right, sour grapes. Kind of like when Musk announced in early March that he was suing OpenAI and its board for breach of contract, because of the company's for-profit nature, which he says was not part of the original plan when he co-founded it.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman quickly replied, publishing emails from 2018 between Musk and others at OpenAI that seemed to suggest Musk had no problem with the company taking a for-profit path because of the billions of dollars it needed to raise from investors just to build a working AI model.

Update: Surprise! Musk has dropped the lawsuit. As the Chronicle reports, Musk's attorney withdrew the suit against OpenAI one day before OpenAI was expected to ask a judge to dismiss it.

As it stands, Apple seems to be behind the eight-ball when it comes to AI technology as its competitors spring forward, and we'll have to see if that caution — or deliberate slowness — will pay off in the end in terms of customer trust and safety.

Previously: OpenAI Publishes Old Emails From Musk Showing He Approved For-Profit Venture

Image via The Don Lemon Show