- OpenAI is reportedly unhappy with its AI partnership with Apple
- That could lead to it suing Apple, Bloomberg claims
- Apple is also allegedly dissatisfied with OpenAI
Apple’s attempts to fix Siri with outside AI help may be hitting serious trouble.
According to a new Bloomberg report, OpenAI is growing increasingly frustrated with its partnership with Apple, to the point that the company is now reportedly considering legal action. Bloomberg claims the relationship has become so “strained” that OpenAI believes it is no longer getting the benefits it expected from integrating ChatGPT into Apple Intelligence features.
Over the last couple years, Apple has teamed up with other tech firms to boost its Apple Intelligence system while it tries to get its artificial intelligence (AI) platform in tip-top shape. That includes getting Google’s Gemini to power some of its more advanced features and tying OpenAI’s ChatGPT into tools like visual intelligence. But now, the partnership with OpenAI could be on the ropes.
“OpenAI lawyers are actively working with an outside legal firm on a range of options that could be formally executed in the near future,” Bloomberg explains. The two companies might not end up duking it out in the courtroom, though, and OpenAI may instead decide to send Apple “a notice alleging breach of contract without necessarily filing a full lawsuit at the outset.”
Why is OpenAI upset at the current state of affairs? The company apparently expected that the collaboration with Apple would “coax more users into subscribing to the chatbot,” Bloomberg says, while it also “expected deeper integration across more Apple apps and prime placement within the Siri assistant.”
That hasn’t happened. Instead, ChatGPT is limited to a few areas of iOS and must often be specifically invoked using the word “ChatGPT,” making it less obvious to users that the chatbot is available. According to Bloomberg, that’s left OpenAI frustrated and seeking some sort of remedy.
Whether or not this dispute goes to trial, it could have implications for Apple fans if the two sides cannot resolve their differences. Apple might increasingly start preferring different chatbots over ChatGPT, for instance, or it could even remove OpenAI’s tool from iPhones entirely if the collaboration falls apart. That would mean a very different AI experience on the iPhone if it comes to pass.
An unhappy ending?
It appears that this is a two-way street, though, and Bloomberg alleges that Apple has its own reasons to complain about the deal. Specifically, the company is reportedly concerned about whether OpenAI is truly committed to user privacy — a key interest for Apple — and is “rankled” by its move into hardware, particularly since those plans involve former Apple design chief Jony Ive and other important workers poached from Apple.
The Bloomberg report quotes an unnamed OpenAI executive who states that “We have done everything from a product perspective.” Apple, they argue, has failed to mirror this commitment. Worse, they claim that people at Apple “haven’t even made an honest effort.”
In explaining the background to the deal, the executive said: “When we heard about this opportunity, it sounded amazing: being able to acquire a giant number of customers and have distribution in such a big mobile ecosystem.” Yet Apple wouldn’t disclose exactly what the project was, simply saying “OpenAI needs to take a leap of faith and trust us,” according to the OpenAI exec.
One key element missing from Bloomberg’s article, though, is what OpenAI’s legal basis actually is. Has Apple breached its contract with the AI startup? If so, which components of the agreement has it fallen foul of? None of that has been disclosed.
All we know from the report is that Apple’s plans to open up iOS to other AI chatbots — including Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini — isn’t the root cause, as the partnership with Apple “wasn’t meant to be exclusive from the start.”
But what is evident is that both sides feel sour about the deal, if Bloomberg’s reporting is accurate. Whether it escalates to a trial — and what comes of that if so — is unknown, but it looks increasingly possible that this relationship is heading for an unhappy ending.
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alexblake.techradar@gmail.com (Alex Blake)
