Apple is reportedly planning to bring Meta Platforms’ artificial intelligence (AI) models to its devices, adding it to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. At the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2024, the Cupertino-based tech giant unveiled its in-house AI features under the Apple Intelligence umbrella. Alongside it also announced the integration of ChatGPT within iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, which would allow users to call upon the services of the OpenAI chatbot to answer specific queries. Now, as per 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 held discussions with Meta recently to explore a partnership between the two tech giants. Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, the report claimed that the partnership could result in Apple integrating the social media giant’s AI models into the operating systems of its devices, similar to the iPhone maker’s collaboration with OpenAI.
The move is not surprising given Apple confirmed that it will be exploring the possibility of introducing more third-party AI models into its product ecosystem. Notably, a previous report highlighted Google Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude AI could be among those which could also be integrated with iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices.
As explained by Apple, the ChatGPT integration is positioned as an add-on service to its in-house Apple Intelligence. Once the feature is released, users will be given the option to call for the services of the OpenAI chatbot for a specific query that can be better handled by a large language model (LLM). However, users are not required to create an OpenAI account to access its features. Further, the iPhone maker has said that ChatGPT will not store any user data after running the query (unless the user has logged into their account voluntarily).
In a previous report, it was claimed that there is no financial exchange for this partnership. It is said that Apple aims to use this integration to push more people to buy and upgrade their devices, whereas OpenAI will be trying to lure more people into the paid subscription of ChatGPT. It is unclear if the Meta deal, if it finalises, will follow a similar structure.