Tech billionaire Elon Musk on Monday filed a lawsuit against Apple and ChatGPT creator OpenAI.

As part of the suit, he asserted that the two companies are engaged in a monopolistic collaboration which is putting his own artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, Grok, at a competitive disadvantage.

What else do we know about the xAI lawsuit?

Musk's AI startup, xAI, alleged in the Texas lawsuit that Apple is preventing other chatbots from ranking above ChatGPT in its App Store, thus starving rivals such as Grok of valuable user interactions upon which the software relies to improve.

Apple and OpenAI have therefore "locked up markets to maintain their monopolies and prevent innovators like X and xAI from competing," Musk's lawsuit claimed.

"If not for its exclusive deal with OpenAI, Apple would have no reason to refrain from more prominently featuring the Grok app in its App Store."

Writing on his X platform later on Monday, Musk echoed the allegations in the lawsuit, saying: "A million reviews with 4.9 average for @Grok and still Apple refuses to mention Grok on any lists."

Apple, which has integrated ChatGPT into its operating system for iPhones, iPads and Macs as part of its partnership with OpenAI, responded to Musk's initial threat of a lawsuit two weeks ago by insisting that its App Store is designed to be fair and not favor anyone.

"This latest filing is consistent with Mr. Musk's ongoing pattern of harassment," an OpenAI spokesperson added in a statement.

Why is Musk's AI lawsuit important?

OpenAI's ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer app in history in the months following its launch in late 2022.

Musk's xAI was launched a few months later in March 2023 and acquired X in March this year for $33 billion with the aim of using the platform to enhance its chatbot training capabilities.

From xAI's perspective, Apple's 65% share of the US smartphone market and OpenAI's 85% share of the AI chatbot market makes a collaboration between the two monopolistic.

Legal experts are watching the case closely, since it constitutes a first opportunity for US courts to asses whether a defined market for AI exists and what it might encompass.

"It's a canary in the coal mine in terms of how courts will treat AI, and treat antitrust and AI," Professor Christine Bartholomew of the Buffalo School of Law told the Reuters news agency.

Edited by: Saim Dušan Inayatullah