Apple has been linked to every artificial intelligence lab over the past few months from Google Gemini to China’s Baidu. But the latest reports suggest it is near to finalizing an agreement with ChatGPT maker OpenAI.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the deal will see Apple get the rights to use OpenAI technology in its own products and services, which means Siri 2.0 could actually be a rebranded ChatGPT — much as Microsoft has done with Windows Copilot.
I suspect what we’re seeing is a snapshot of a much bigger picture, with OpenAI working with a range of AI labs, including its own growing research division, to ensure it has the best possible AI features across its products.
What will the Apple-OpenAI deal entail?
Apple has previously hinted that it would run new Siri features and many of the AI functionality “on-device," with CEO Tim Cook touting Apple’s unique position of being able to offer hardware and software interlinked. For example, the new M4 chip powering iPad Pro is the best AI chip available today.
Gurman says talks are also continuing with Google and the OpenAI deal will allow Apple “to use ChatGPT features in Apple’s iOS 18, the next iPhone operating system.” His sources are anonymous insiders.
The agreement could be anything from giving ChatGPT deeper access to iOS systems than is normally possible for a third-party app, but keeping it as a stand alone app — through to Apple going all-in and replacing Siri with a version of ChatGPT built for iPhone.
The reality is likely somewhere in the middle, with Apple maintaining control over Siri, upgrading it using some of its own in-house and on-device models but using models like Whisper and DALL-E from OpenAI to offer more advanced generative features.
What about the OpenAI event?
OpenAI is about to hold its own event, promising ChatGPT and GPT-4 updates, although CEO Sam Altman said what they plan to reveal feels like “magic," leading many to speculate we’ll see a new voice assistant.
This would be more advanced than anything released by Apple, Amazon or Google and offer true natural conversations. This could be an indication of what we might see from an Apple partnership. I suspect Altman will be on stage at WWDC in June.
