Apple is reportedly holding discussions with OpenAI about using the startup’s AI technology to power some features coming to the iPhone later this year, Bloomberg reported on Friday. This comes roughly a month after reports surfaced that Apple was holding discussions with Google about using Gemini in iOS 18. Either company winning a contract could earn them a dominant position in the artificial intelligence world.
Apple was largely absent from the AI conversation for all of 2023, and now it’s expected to release its first generative AI offering halfway through 2024. Simply put, Apple is late to the party. The company reportedly struggled internally to develop a product similar to ChatGPT. Employees say an in-house AI chatbot, dubbed Apple GPT, is inferior to leading models on the market today. However, Apple recently canceled other internal projects to refocus its generative AI effort.
By relying on Google or OpenAI, Apple could avoid some of the major flubs ChatGPT and Gemini have experienced in launching their own AI chatbots. Gemini’s AI image generator still refuses to generate pictures of any people months after Google chose to pause the feature. However, Apple could also become more reliant on a competitor by outsourcing its AI to Google or OpenAI.
An Apple partnership would give a huge advantage to an AI provider who wins the deal. For OpenAI, it could mean the startup is partnering with Microsoft and Apple, giving it a dominant position in the AI world. For Google, it could renew faith in Gemini AI after a somewhat embarrassing debut.
