In a fiery exchange that unfolded on a late‑night Twitter Space, Elon Musk slammed Apple’s App Store for “favoring” OpenAI, prompting Sam Altman, the CEO of the same company, to retort that the accusation was baseless. The spat, which attracted thousands of live viewers and sparked debate across tech circles, underscores a growing rift between the world’s two most high‑profile AI powerhouses and the platform that governs much of the industry’s distribution.
The controversy began when Musk, who has been vocally critical of Apple’s approach to AI and data privacy, posted a screenshot of a recent App Store policy update. The update, announced by Apple’s policy team on March 12, tightened guidelines around “large language model” (LLM) services, requiring apps that use external AI APIs to provide on‑device fallbacks and to disclose usage to users. Musk’s caption read: “Looks like the App Store is playing favorites with OpenAI. W