The partnership between Apple and OpenAI announced at WWDC this week is set to give ChatGPT a prominent place in Apple’s ecosystem. However, it appears that neither party is exchanging monetary payments for this collaboration. According to a report from Bloomberg by Mark Gurman, Apple believes that the exposure OpenAI gains from being on millions of Apple devices holds significant value.
The deal is not exclusive to OpenAI, as Apple is also in discussions with Anthropic and Google to offer their chatbots as an alternative. Google’s Gemini is expected to have an agreement in place later this year. Initially, Apple will enable users to send specific queries to OpenAI’s GPT-4o model on iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia. The company aims to provide users with a variety of third-party AI services, similar to how Safari supports different search engine options.
According to the Bloomberg report, Apple plans to generate revenue from these partnerships through revenue-sharing agreements. This involves taking a percentage from any AI provider that monetizes results in their chatbots, such as ChatGPT Plus’s subscription plan.
Apple anticipates that chatbots and LLMs will start drawing users away from traditional search engines, posing a challenge to Google’s substantial payment to remain the iPhone’s default search engine. Revenue-sharing deals could potentially offset this loss for Apple.
The agreements surrounding Apple Intelligence and the OpenAI partnership signify a significant advancement in Apple’s AI strategy. The company aims to expand Apple Intelligence to support additional languages next year, as reported by Bloomberg. Apple is also exploring partnerships with Baidu and Alibaba to offer chatbot features in China, where access to ChatGPT is limited.
