Pro-Freedom Elon Musk is Threatening to Ban iPhone at His Companies

Elon Musk holding a smartphone and wearing an Occupy Mars shirt in front of an Apple Store logo
Credit: Reuters / Apple

Elon Musk holding a smartphone and wearing an Occupy Mars shirt in front of an Apple Store logo
Credit: Reuters / Apple

Love him or hate him, Elon Musk wants you to see him as a monolith in the "pro-freedom" movement. His stance on freedom of speech and opposition to the so-called "woke mind virus" pushed him to purchase Twitter and democratize the blue check mark, albeit for a fee.

One of the significant ongoing sagas is the clash between Musk and OpenAI, the creator of the best AI chatbot. Before OpenAI launched the intuitive ChatGPT-4o, Musk publicly expressed concerns about the company, having invested in it during its early days and hoping to either gain full control or merge it with Tesla.

Despite the apparent easing of tensions between Musk and OpenAI, the announcement of iOS 18's AI features has reignited Musk's ire. The Tesla and X (formerly Twitter) owner has announced plans to ban iPhones from his companies if Apple integrates ChatGPT at the operating system level.

"If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, then Apple devices will be banned at my companies. That is an unacceptable security violation," Musk wrote on his public Twitter account. "And visitors will have to check their Apple devices at the door, where they will be stored in a Faraday cage." Faraday cages are enclosures that block electromagnetic signals.

Despite advocating for freedom and free speech, Musk is very clear that if Apple Intelligence partners further with OpenAI, he's ready to curb that freedom. Apple's AI features won't launch until the iOS 18 release date, and given Apple's strong focus on privacy, such a scenario seems unlikely. Nonetheless, Musk is determined to voice his opposition.

"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 and privacy!" Musk wrote in a more recent tweet. Ironically, this tweet received a community note on X, adding context that "Apple has developed their foundational models which run on-device (locally) and have approximately 3 billion parameters."

Following the WWDC event, Musk launched a tirade against Apple and ChatGPT, even sharing memes implying that ChatGPT wouldn't allow you to misgender Caitlyn Jenner to prevent an apocalypse, for some reason. Musk's rant stopped 13 hours ago, as of writing this article, suggesting he's likely asleep now.

In other Musk-related news, Tesla has recently halted gaming features in upcoming Model X cars. However, if you're looking for a Tesla-related gaming device, you might want to check out the Cybertruck Mini PC.