I assume that this method should glean sufficient profit for Elon to maintain doing it, regardless of the dangers that it carries.
Regardless of the logic, Elon has once more determined to tackle Apple, this time over app rankings, and the truth that his Grok AI app hasn’t reached primary on the related app retailer charts as but.
For the reason that launch of xAI’s newest Grok 4 mannequin, in addition to its AI companions and its “Think about” text-to-video generator, downloads of the Grok app have been growing, however Elon says that Apple is intentionally limiting promotion of the app, regardless of its clear recognition.
As per Musk:
“Apple is behaving in a fashion that makes it not possible for any AI firm in addition to OpenAI to succeed in #1 within the App Retailer, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation. xAI will take quick authorized motion.”
Which is wrong.
As many have identified, and as has been talked about within the Neighborhood Observe on Elon’s submit, many AI apps have reached the primary spot within the App Retailer rankings, together with Perplexity, DeepSeek and Meta AI.
So it’s not remotely true that Apple is limiting all AI apps besides OpenAI, besides, Elon has dug his heels in, and has continued to take swipes at Apple all through the day, primarily accusing the corporate of anti-competitive conduct, designed to profit OpenAI.
Which OpenAI’s chief Sam Altman has additionally weighed in on:
“This can be a outstanding declare given what I’ve heard alleged that Elon does to control X to profit himself and his personal corporations and hurt his opponents and folks he does not like.”
Altman is referring to Elon’s efforts to make sure that his personal feedback get extra traction on X, whereas X’s Grok AI chatbot additionally reportedly references Elon’s posts and opinions on sure topics when contemplating its responses.
Musk form of denied this, by calling Altman a liar, although he has by no means really dominated out the suggestion of both declare.
Although that is an apart, and extra a observe on Silicon Valley drama, with the actual accusation of observe being Elon’s criticisms of Apple, and the suggestion that he’ll be trying to take authorized motion over such.
Which he clearly is aware of that he received’t win, given, once more, that a number of AI apps have reached the highest of the App Retailer charts, whereas final time Elon tried to tackle Apple (over Apple’s 30% App Retailer charges), he was rapidly rebuked, as soon as it turned clear that Apple may decide to delist X from the App Retailer, and trigger his enterprise vital impacts.
So why is Musk going by this charade once more?
Properly, clearly, X and xAI achieve a stage of promotion from the next protection of Elon’s claims.
Elon is a grasp of getting consideration, and one of many largest advantages of getting Elon accountable for your organization is that you just’re going to stay within the dialog, even with out advertisements and/or paid promotion. Having Elon successfully signifies that you don’t want a media group to realize traction, as his personal feedback and statements are going to get sufficient of the media trying your method, although the query then is whether or not that is good or unhealthy publicity. And whether or not that really issues.
The outdated adage is that “all publicity is nice publicity,” and there’s some fact to the truth that even adverse protection, at a sure stage, is helpful for a enterprise. Although Tesla’s status has taken successful in recent times attributable to Musk’s political leanings, which has impacted each gross sales and its valuation, whereas X’s utilization has declined since Musk took over on the app.
So possibly, Elon’s proving that motto to be incorrect, at the least within the trendy media world. Although we’re all effectively conscious of Elon Musk’s companies, even with solely restricted paid promotion, and Elon continues to maintain his tasks within the headlines, giving him the equal of billions in media protection consequently.
I assume that’s Musk’s intention on this case as effectively. Like, he should know that that is an simply disprovable declare, whereas he’s additionally criticized Apple for limiting X in the identical method, regardless of X intentionally manipulating the App Retailer rankings by classifying itself as a information app (which it’s not).
Elon should know that this isn’t a battle that he can win. However we’re all speaking about it, I’m writing about it, and also you’re studying this proper now, so there’s a clear promotional worth for Elon in making such claims.
As such, I believe that, in a few days, Elon will declare that it’s all good, that he’s spoken to Tim Prepare dinner, and the whole lot is correct on the planet once more. Which is what he did final time, although Elon does additionally run the danger of sparking Apple’s ire, and dropping out considerably consequently.
For instance, X’s Grok chatbot went offline this week after making claims about genocide in Gaza, the newest controversy surrounding the chatbot, complete xAI’s new AI companions pose a big publicity danger for children.
Given the varied considerations, Apple may have purpose to tug X and xAI from the App Retailer completely, which might be a devastating blow for each.
So Elon is taking a danger in making these claims. But it surely continues to work for him, so…
