Jess Weatherbed, reporting for The Verge:
Elon Musk says that his artificial intelligence company xAI “will take immediate legal action” against Apple for allegedly manipulating its App Store rankings to the advantage of rival AI apps. In a series of X posts on Monday night, Musk suggested that Apple was “playing politics” by not placing either X or xAI’s Grok chatbot in the App Store’s list of recommended iOS apps, and that he had no choice but to file a lawsuit.
“Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation,” Musk said. “Why do you refuse to put either X or Grok in your ‘Must Have’ section when X is the #1 news app in the world and Grok is #5 among all apps?,” the xAI CEO asked Apple in another post, which is now pinned to his profile.
I’m sure none of these things are factors when it comes to the app’s ranking and this lawsuit:
- OpenAI’s recent release of GPT-5, or the fact that it’s been at the top of the App Store for months.
- Elon’s long and complex history with Sam Altman.
- X’s declining usage and importance.
- The whole MechaHitler thing, or white genocide thing, or fake nudes thing.
Personally, I’d like to see Apple enforce its own App Store rules here. Currently, the Grok app has a 12+ age rating. Given the sexual content that is so easily accessible through the chatbot, that sure seems low to me.