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Elon Musk blasts Apple's OpenAI deal over alleged privacy issues. Does he have a point?
When Apple holds its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, its software announcements typically elicit cheers and excitement from tech enthusiasts.
But there was one notable exception this year — Elon Musk.
The Tesla and SpaceX chief executive threatened to ban all Apple devices from his companies, alleging a new partnership between Apple and Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI could pose security risks. As part of its new operating system update, Apple said users who ask Siri a question could opt in for Siri to pull additional information from ChatGPT.
“Apple has no clue what’s actually going on once they hand your data over to OpenAI,” Musk wrote on X. “They’re selling you down the river.”
The partnership allows Siri to ask iPhone, Mac and iPad users if the digital assistant can surface answers from OpenAI’s ChatGPT to help address a question. The new feature, which will be available on certain Apple devices, is part of the company’s operating system update due later this year.
“If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, then Apple devices will be banned at my companies,” Musk wrote on X. “That is an unacceptable security violation.”
Representatives for Musk and Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
In a keynote presentation at its developers conference on Monday, Apple said ChatGPT would be free for iPhone, Mac and iPad users. Under the partnership, Apple device users would not need to set up a ChatGPT account to use it with Siri.
“Privacy protections are built in for users who access ChatGPT — their IP addresses are obscured, and OpenAI won’t store requests,” Apple said on its website. “ChatGPT’s data-use policies apply for users who choose to connect their account.”
Many of Apple’s AI models and features, which the company collectively calls “Apple Intelligence,” run on the device itself, but some inquiries will require information to be sent through the cloud. Apple said that data is not stored or made accessible to Apple and that independent experts can inspect the code that runs on the servers to verify this.
Apple Intelligence will be available for certain models of Apple devices, such as the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPad and Mac with M1 and later.
So does Musk have a point? Technology and security experts who spoke to The Times offered mixed opinions.
Some pushed back on Musk’s assertion that Apple’s OpenAI deal poses security risks, citing a lack of evidence.
“Like a lot of things that Elon Musk says, it’s not based upon any kind of technical reality now, it’s really just based upon his political beliefs,” said Alex Stamos, chief trust officer at Mountain View, Calif.-based cybersecurity company SentinelOne. “There’s no real factual basis for what he said.”
Stamos, who is also a computer science lecturer at Stanford University and a former chief security officer at Facebook, said he was impressed with Apple’s data protection efforts, adding, “They’re promising a level of transparency that nobody’s really ever provided.
“It’s hard to totally prove at this point, but what they’ve laid out is about the best you could do to provide this level of AI services running on people’s private data while protecting their privacy,” Stamos said.
“To do the things that people have become accustomed to from ChatGPT, you just can’t do that on phones yet,” Stamos added. “We’re years away from being able to run those kinds of models on something that fits in your pocket and doesn’t burn a hole in your jeans from the amount of power it burns.”
Musk has been critical of OpenAI. He sued the company in February for breach of contract and fiduciary duty, alleging it had shifted its focus from an agreement to develop artificial general intelligence “for the benefit of humanity, not for a for-profit company seeking to maximize shareholder profits.” On Tuesday, Musk, who was a co-founder of and investor in OpenAI, withdrew his lawsuit. Musk’s San Francisco company, xAI, is a competitor to OpenAI in the fast-growing field of artificial intelligence.
Musk has taken aim at Apple in the past, calling it a “Tesla graveyard,” because, according to him, Apple had hired people that Tesla had fired. “If you don’t make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple,” Musk said in an interview with German newspaper Handelsblatt in 2015. “I’m not kidding.”
Still, Rayid Ghani, a machine learning and public policy professor at Carnegie Mellon University, said that, at a high level, he thinks the concerns Musk raised about the OpenAI-Apple partnership should be raised.
While Apple said that OpenAI is not storing Siri requests, “I don’t think we should just take that at face value,” Ghani said. “I think we need to ask for evidence of that. How does Apple ensure that processes are there in place? What is the recourse if it doesn’t happen? Who’s liable, Apple or OpenAI, and how do we deal with issues?”
Some industry observers also have raised questions about the option for Apple users who have a ChatGPT account to link it with their iPhone, and what information is collected by OpenAI in that case.
“We have to be careful with that one — linking your account on your mobile phone is a big deal,” said Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum. “I personally would not link until there is a lot more clarity about what happens to the data.”
OpenAI pointed to a statement on its website that says, “Users can also choose to connect their ChatGPT account, which means their data preferences will apply under ChatGPT’s policies.” The company declined further comment.
Under OpenAI’s privacy policy, the company says it collects personal information that is included in the input, file uploads or feedback when account holders use its service. ChatGPT has a way for users to opt out of having their inquiries used to train AI models.
As the use of AI becomes more entwined with people’s lives, industry observers say that it will be crucial to provide transparency for customers and test the trustworthiness of the AI tools.
“We’re going to have to understand something about AI. It’s going to be a lot like plumbing. It’s going to be built into our devices and our lives everywhere,” Dixon said. “The AI is going to have to be trustworthy and we’re going to need to be able to test that trustworthiness.”
Night Archiving Supervisor Valerie Hood contributed to this report.
California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has issued a moratorium that bars insurers from canceling or non-renewing home policies in the Pacific Palisades and the San Gabriel Valley’s Eaton fire zones.
The moratorium, issued Thursday, protects homeowners living within the perimeter of the fire and in adjoining ZIP codes from losing their policies for one year, starting from when Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Wednesday.
The moratoriums, provided for under state law, are typically issued after large fires and apply to all policyholders regardless of whether they have suffered a loss.
Lara also urged insurers to pause for six months any pending non-renewals or cancellations that were issued up to 90 days before Jan. 7 that were to take effect after the start of the fires — something he does not have authority to prohibit.
“I call upon all property insurance companies to halt these non-renewals and cancellations and provide essential stability for our communities, allowing consumers to focus on what’s important at the moment — their safety and recovery,” said Lara on Friday during a press conference in downtown Los Angeles.
Insurance companies in California have wide latitude to not renew home policies after they expire, though they must provide at least 75 days’ notice. However, policies in force can be canceled only for reasons such as non-payment and fraud.
Insurers have dropped hundreds of thousands of policyholders across California in recent years citing the increasing risk and severity of wind-driven wildfires attributed to climate change. The insurance department said residents living in fire zones can be subject to sudden non-renewals, prompting the need for the moratoriums.
In addition, Lara asked insurers to extend to policyholders affected by the fires time to pay their premiums that go beyond the existing 60-day grace period that is mandatory under state law.
It’s not clear how many homeowners in Pacific Palisades and elsewhere might not have had coverage, but many homeowners reported that insurers had not renewed their policies before the disaster struck. State Farm last year told the Department of Insurance it would not renew 1,626 policies in Pacific Palisades when they expired, starting last July.
Residents can visit the Department of Insurance website at insurance.ca.gov to see if their ZIP codes are included in the moratorium. They can also contact the department at (800) 927-4357 or via chat or email if they think their insurer is in violation of the law.
The Pacific Palisades fire, the most destructive fire in Los Angeles history, as of Friday morning had grown to more than 20,000 acres, burning more than 5,000 homes, businesses and other buildings. It was 6% contained.
The Eaton fire, which has burned many structures in Altadena and Pasadena, has spread to nearly 14,000 acres and was 3% contained as of early Friday. Ten people have died in the fires.
The lobby of Shutters on the Beach, the luxury oceanfront hotel in Santa Monica that is usually abuzz with tourists and entertainment professionals, had by Thursday transformed into a refuge for Los Angeles residents displaced by the raging wildfires that have ripped through thousands of acres and leveled entire neighborhoods to ash.
In the middle of one table sat something that has probably never been in the lobby of Shutters before: a portable plastic goldfish tank. “It’s my daughter’s,” said Kevin Fossee, 48. Mr. Fossee and his wife, Olivia Barth, 45, had evacuated to the hotel on Tuesday evening shortly after the fire in the Los Angeles Pacific Palisades area flared up near their home in Malibu.
Suddenly, an evacuation alert came in. Every phone in the lobby wailed at once, scaring young children who began to cry inconsolably. People put away their phones a second later when they realized it was a false alarm.
Similar scenes have been unfolding across other Los Angeles hotels as the fires spread and the number of people under evacuation orders soars above 100,000. IHG, which includes the Intercontinental, Regent and Holiday Inn chains, said 19 of its hotels across the Los Angeles and Pasadena areas were accommodating evacuees.
The Palisades fire, which has been raging since Tuesday and has become the most destructive in the history of Los Angeles, struck neighborhoods filled with mansions owned by the wealthy, as well as the homes of middle-class families who have owned them for generations. Now they all need places to stay.
Many evacuees turned to a Palisades WhatsApp group that in just a few days has grown from a few hundred to over 1,000 members. Photos, news, tips on where to evacuate, hotel discount codes and pet policies were being posted with increasing rapidity as the fires spread.
At the midcentury modern Beverly Hilton hotel, which looms over the lawns and gardens of Beverly Hills, seven miles and a world away from the ash-strewed Pacific Palisades, parking ran out on Wednesday as evacuees piled in. Guests had to park in another lot a mile south and take a shuttle back.
In the lobby of the hotel, which regularly hosts glamorous events like the recent Golden Globe Awards, guests in workout clothes wrestled with children, pets and hastily packed roll-aboards.
Many of the guests were already familiar with each other from their neighborhoods, and there was a resigned intimacy as they traded stories. “You can tell right away if someone is a fire evacuee by whether they are wearing sweats or have a dog with them,” said Sasha Young, 34, a photographer. “Everyone I’ve spoken with says the same thing: We didn’t take enough.”
The Hotel June, a boutique hotel with a 1950s hipster vibe a mile north of Los Angeles International Airport, was offering evacuees rooms for $125 per night.
“We were heading home to the Palisades from the airport when we found out about the evacuations,” said Julia Morandi, 73, a retired science educator who lives in the Palisades Highlands neighborhood. “When we checked in, they could see we were stressed, so the manager gave us drinks tickets and told us, ‘We take care of our neighbors.’”
Hotels are also assisting tourists caught up in the chaos, helping them make arrangements to fly home (as of Friday, the airport was operating normally) and waiving cancellation fees. A spokeswoman for Shutters said its guests included domestic and international tourists, but on Thursday, few could be spotted among the displaced Angelenos. The heated outdoor pool that overlooks the ocean and is usually surrounded by sunbathers was completely deserted because of the dangerous air quality.
“I think I’m one of the only tourists here,” said Pavel Francouz, 34, a hockey scout who came to Los Angeles from the Czech Republic for a meeting on Tuesday before the fires ignited.
“It’s weird to be a tourist,” he said, describing the eerily empty beaches and the hotel lobby packed with crying children, families, dogs and suitcases. “I can’t imagine what it would feel like to be these people,” he said, adding, “I’m ready to go home.”
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The downtown Los Angeles Macy’s department store, situated on 7th Street and a cornerstone of retail in the area, will shut down as the company prepares to close 150 underperforming locations in an effort to revamp and modernize its business.
The iconic retail center announced this week the first 66 closures, including nine in California spanning from Sacramento to San Diego. Stores will also close in Florida, New York and Georgia, among other states. The closures are part of a broader company strategy to bolster sustainability and profitability.
Macy’s is not alone in its plan to slim down and rejuvenate sales. The retailer Kohl’s announced on Friday that it would close 27 poor performing stores by April, including 10 in California and one in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Westchester. Kohl’s will also shut down its San Bernardino e-commerce distribution center in May.
“Kohl’s continues to believe in the health and strength of its profitable store base” and will have more than 1,100 stores remaining after the closures, the company said in a statement.
Macy’s announced its plan last February to end operations at roughly 30% of its stores by 2027, following disappointing quarterly results that included a $71-million loss and nearly 2% decline in sales. The company will invest in its remaining 350 stores, which have the potential to “generate more meaningful value,” according to a release.
“We are closing underproductive Macy’s stores to allow us to focus our resources and prioritize investments in our go-forward stores, where customers are already responding positively to better product offerings and elevated service,” Chief Executive Tony Spring said in a statement. “Closing any store is never easy.”
Macy’s brick-and-mortar locations also faced a setback in January 2024, when the company announced the closures of five stores, including the location at Simi Valley Town Center. At the same time, Macy’s said it would layoff 3.5% of its workforce, equal to about 2,350 jobs.
Farther north, Walgreens announced this week that it would shutter 12 stores across San Francisco due to “increased regulatory and reimbursement pressures,” CBS News reported.
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