Despite ongoing discussions with Google, Apple is reportedly intensifying talks with OpenAI to help bring generative AI features to the iPhone.
The report comes via Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, who notes that Apple has "renewed discussions with OpenAI about using the startup’s technology to power some new features coming to the iPhone later this year."
According to Gurman, a discussion between the two companies took place earlier this year but things had gone quieter, while Apple and Google continued to discuss the licensing of Gemini, the latter's chatbot, for use on the iPhone.
Gurman notes the negotiations could lead to nothing, or Apple signing deals with both OpenAI and Google.
iOS 18's AI features
iOS 18 is expected to offer a suite of AI-focused features as headline additions to the iPhone's operating system, and multiple reports have suggested whichever firm Apple partners with will work to provide a chatbot-style interface.
Gurman also notes that, alongside OpenAI (the creators of ChatGPT), AI startup Anthropic (of the Claude 3 chatbot) have also been involved in negotiations to some extent.
With Apple beginning to pivot hardware to help on-device processing of AI tasks (see the MacBook Air M3 and Apple Watch Series 9), the question now is whether the iPhone 16 will see the debut of new generative AI features that make use of the A18 chip.
We're likely to find out much more at WWDC 2024 on June 10, but it'll be interesting to see how discussions unfold in the meantime.
