I assume that this strategy 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.
Because the 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 rising, 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 way that makes it unattainable for any AI firm moreover OpenAI to achieve #1 within the App Retailer, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation. xAI will take rapid authorized motion.”
Which is inaccurate.
As many have identified, and as has been talked about within the Group Observe on Elon’s put up, 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, basically accusing the corporate of anti-competitive habits, 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 firms and hurt his opponents and other people he does not like.”
Altman is referring to Elon’s efforts to be 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 truly dominated out the suggestion of both declare.
Although that is an apart, and extra a be aware on Silicon Valley drama, with the actual accusation of be aware 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 grew to become clear that Apple may choose to delist X from the App Retailer, and trigger his enterprise important impacts.
So why is Musk going by this charade once more?
Properly, clearly, X and xAI achieve a degree of promotion from the following protection of Elon’s claims.
Elon is a grasp of getting consideration, and one of many greatest advantages of getting Elon in control of your organization is that you simply’re going to stay within the dialog, even with out adverts and/or paid promotion. Having Elon successfully implies that you don’t want a media group to achieve traction, as his personal feedback and statements are going to get sufficient of the media wanting your approach, although the query then is whether or not that is good or dangerous publicity. And whether or not that truly issues.
The outdated adage is that “all publicity is sweet publicity,” and there’s some reality to the truth that even unfavorable protection, at a sure degree, is helpful for a enterprise. Although Tesla’s fame has taken a success in recent times as a result of 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 very least within the trendy media world. Although we’re all nicely 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 because of this.
I assume that’s Musk’s intention on this case as nicely. Like, he should know that that is an simply disprovable declare, whereas he’s additionally criticized Apple for limiting X in the identical approach, 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 think that, in a few days, Elon will declare that it’s all good, that he’s spoken to Tim Cook dinner, and every thing is true on this 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 because of this.
For instance, X’s Grok chatbot went offline this week after making claims about genocide in Gaza, the most recent controversy surrounding the chatbot, entire xAI’s new AI companions pose a major publicity danger for kids.
Given the assorted considerations, Apple may have motive to drag X and xAI from the App Retailer solely, which might be a devastating blow for each.
So Elon is taking a danger in making these claims. However it continues to work for him, so…
