Apple reportedly plans to bring Meta Platforms’ artificial intelligence (AI) models to its devices, adding them to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. At the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2024, the Cupertino-based tech giant unveiled its own AI features under the umbrella of Apple Intelligence. Additionally, it also announced the integration of ChatGPT in iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia, which would allow users to invoke the services of an OpenAI chatbot to answer specific queries. Now, according to a report, Meta AI could also join the list of third-party AI chatbots powering Apple devices.
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Apple recently held talks with Meta to explore a partnership between the two tech giants. Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, the report claims the partnership could result in Apple integrating the social media giant’s AI models into its device operating systems, similar to the iPhone maker’s collaboration with OpenAI.
The move is not surprising given that Apple has confirmed that it will explore the possibility of introducing more third-party AI models into its product ecosystem. In fact, a previous report pointed out that Google Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude AI could be among those that could also be integrated with iPhone, iPad and Mac devices.
As explained by Apple, the ChatGPT integration is positioned as an additional service to its internal Apple Intelligence. Once the feature goes live, users will have the option to invoke the services of an OpenAI chatbot for a specific query that can be better handled by a large-scale language model (LLM). However, users do not need to create an OpenAI account to access its features. Furthermore, the iPhone maker said that ChatGPT will not store any user data after a query is initiated (unless the user voluntarily logs into their account).
A previous report claimed that there was no financial exchange for this partnership. It is said that Apple intends to use this integration to encourage more people to buy and upgrade their devices, while OpenAI will try to lure more people to paid subscriptions to ChatGPT. It is not clear whether the contract with Meta, if finalized, will follow a similar structure.
