Apple announced at WWDC a new partnership with OpenAI to integrate the ChatGPT-4o into Siri. The updated virtual assistant, included in iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia, will see ChatGPT powering responses directly from later this year. However, according to Bloomberg"s Mark Gurman, no money is changing hands as part of the deal.
Sources familiar with the partnership said Apple believes promoting OpenAI"s brand and tech to its installed base of over 1 billion active devices provides more value than a cash payment. The thinking is more Apple users using ChatGPT could lead to increased subscription sign-ups for the $20 per month ChatGPT Plus tier. Apple may also take a percentage of those fees as the referring partner.
In his report, Mark Gurman wrote;
Apple isn’t paying OpenAI as part of the partnership, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deal terms are private. Instead, Apple believes pushing OpenAI’s brand and technology to hundreds of millions of its devices is of equal or greater value than monetary payments.
While the computing costs of supporting ChatGPT for countless Siri requests could become sizable for OpenAI, there is potential for new revenue streams. Apple also intends to seek revenue sharing from partners like Google for features powered by its AI technologies, aiming to offset search ad dollars going to Google.
To start, the improved AI abilities will only be available in English, though more languages are planned for next year. In addition to ChatGPT for Siri, Apple is also planning to offer other chatbots. Although it was claimed that Apple was in talks with Google for the Gemini, this rumor was never confirmed.
On the other hand, ChatGPT with GPT-4o voice capabilities will continue to be available as a standalone app for Apple devices. It is worth noting that ChatGPT-4o, which was released in the last month, is available for everyone, including free users.