OpenAI Accelerates Ad Push with Meta Hires & Slashed Prices, Apple Antitrust Worries Developers

Akash Pasricha (0:13)

Welcome, everyone, to The Information's TITV. My name is Akash Pasricha. It is Friday, October 16th, and we have got some flying cars, folks. Last night, Tesla put on quite a show demoing its Roadster. We saw the car climb up a wall onto an upside down ramp and then land on the ground with thrusters. There was another demo where the car flew up off the ground, side flipped over five other cars, landed back on its feet. This thing was crazy. And my colleague, Grace Kay, reported a lot of these details back in August. It was a great story. I will link it in the show notes. We still don't know how much this car is going to cost. The company says it's going to begin production in 2028

We of course know that Tesla has had a long history of delays with the Roadster, which Grace gets into in her story. And the big thing is this very much makes the case clear for why Tesla could merge with SpaceX down the line. We will have to see how this all plays out. It is certainly a very exciting story.

Today on this show, the DOJ is negotiating a settlement in its antitrust lawsuit against Apple leaving app developers worried. It won't go far enough. We'll then get an update on OpenAI's push into advertising as the company recruits top meta executives. We'll also talk to two founders with two novel companies in the era of AI. The CEO of Proof is looking at verifying agent identities. The CEO of Architect is developing an auction platform for AI inference. We're going to close out the show with the editor's cut on the recent struggles for Neo Clouds. It's going to be a great show, so let's get right on into it.

The Department of Justice is negotiating a settlement of its antitrust lawsuit against Apple and exclusive reporting from the information reveals that app developers are a bit worried about how the results of that deal might end up. Joining me now with the latest is our Apple reporter Aaron Tilley who reported that story. Aaron, welcome back to the show. It's great to have you here.

Aaron Tilley (2:14)

Thanks for having me.

Akash Pasricha (2:15)

Okay, so remind us here of the context of this antitrust lawsuit.

Aaron Tilley (2:21)

Yeah, so the DOJ filed a lawsuit during the Biden administration in 2024, for alleging anti-competitive behavior, Apple maintaining an illegal monopoly over the premium smartphone market. And it points to a lot of issues around app integrations. This is the allegations that this is helping maintain this illegal monopoly the DOJ alleges. And they filed in 2024

They've gone through some early parts of discovery, but we haven't heard much since that initial filing and some back and forth over. I also attempt to dismiss it, but failed.

Akash Pasricha (3:04)

And so what have you found out about these discussions that the DOJ is having with Apple about a potential settlement?

Aaron Tilley (3:11)

Yeah, so from what I've heard, that the DOJ is very motivated to settle. They have shown this drive in other cases. The current leader of the DOJ's antitrust division, Stanley Woodward, is very, he sees settling as more favorable to consumers than waiting it out for trial, which takes years of time. And sometimes the remedies are bad. So his philosophy is settling and getting consumers remedies as soon as possible. So they're very motivated to settle. And on top of that, Apple maintains a very good, strong relationship with the Trump administration, which certainly doesn't hurt any settlement here.

Tim Cook spent a lot of time working with Trump and the Trump administration to making sure they're happy.

Akash Pasricha (4:07)

So how do developers feel about this then?

Aaron Tilley (4:11)

They're not happy. They're very, very concerned. Sorry, go ahead.

Akash Pasricha (4:17)

They're livid.

Aaron Tilley (4:18)

Yeah.

I would say, I think it's, you know, it's a concern anytime one of these discussions happen, that Apple is going to get off light. You know, there was big hopes for a law of developers with the DOJ's initial lawsuit, that they would start breaking down the barriers, open up iPhone to be in a more open ecosystem, better integrations in iPhone, so Apple doesn't have sort of preferential treatment with its own apps, that these developers feel that is unfair. So yeah, there's concern that the remedies are going to be very light, and things will continue on as they are right now.

Akash Pasricha (5:05)

And sorry, so what you were talking about just now, that, I mean, they want this to be as open an ecosystem as possible. Just make clear for us, what is on the table right now, exactly, in terms of what the settlement can hold?