Will Apple replace its voice assistant Siri with ChatGPT? The Apple brand, more discreet than its competitors in terms of artificial intelligence (AI), would be on the verge of concluding an agreement with OpenAI in order to install ChatGPT functionalities in its iOS 18 mobile operating system, revealed Bloomberg this Saturday, May 11. The two parties are in the process of finalizing the terms of the pact, according to sources close to the matter interviewed by the American media.
In April, Bloomberg reported that discussions with OpenAI had intensified. There is no guarantee that an agreement will be announced soon, he said. Representatives of Apple, OpenAI and Google, contacted by the American media, did not comment on this information.
Apple is preparing a major update for its iPhone with iOS 18, the first beta of which is planned in a month, during the WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) organized from June 10 to 14. The deal with OpenAI is part of a broader Apple initiative to bring artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to its devices, which the Californian brand plans to announce at this annual conference global developers. Last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook indicated that new AI features would be integrated into Apple products on a “very considered basis”, recalls Bloomberg.
Also in discussion with Google
The erratic performance of Siri, which was launched more than twelve years ago, gave the impression that the Californian giant has some catching up to do. “It is clear to just about everyone that Apple has lost competitiveness with Siri. It is probably the product where the delay is most obvious”, commented to AFP, in 2023, Yory Wurmser, d ‘Insider Intelligence (now eMarketer).
Last March, Bloomberg also revealed the existence of discussions between Google and Apple to integrate Gemini, the competing model of GPT-4, into iOS 18. These discussions are still continuing, according to this media, but have still not resulted in an agreement.
Pending the signing of an agreement between Apple and OpenAI, several questions remain unanswered at this stage. As indicated Numerama, it is not yet clear what ChatGPT integration on iPhone will look like. Apple could make ChatGPT its sole partner, by redirecting overly complex questions to the OpenAI service, or leave the choice between GPT and Gemini to its users, like the search engine in the iPhone settings (Google , Bing…), explains the pure-player. In addition, if ChatGPT takes over from Siri every time a question is too complex, the question of privacy will arise. Will Apple use OpenAI servers? Or will it set up its own servers, with its own version of GPT-4? To be continued.