In a bid to catch up in the artificial intelligence race, Apple announced a groundbreaking partnership with OpenAI to boost its Siri voice assistant and operating systems with ChatGPT technology. The move was unveiled at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on Monday, alongside several other new features.
As part of a new personalized AI system dubbed “Apple Intelligence,” users will gain enhanced navigation capabilities across Apple devices by leveraging ChatGPT’s prowess. Updates to the iPhone and Mac operating systems will grant access to ChatGPT through the OpenAI partnership, enabling its use for tasks like text and content generation. A test version of this integration will become available in the autumn.
Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, emphasized that the move would elevate the company’s products “to new heights” as he kicked off the WWDC event at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California.
However, the markets reacted coolly, with Apple’s share price falling by 1.91% on the announcement day. The partnership also faced criticism from Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla and Twitter/X, who threatened to ban iPhones from his companies due to “data security” concerns, alleging that Apple has “no clue what’s actually going on once they hand your data over to OpenAI.”
Samsung, a rival smartphone maker, mocked Apple’s announcement, stating, “Adding ‘Apple’ doesn’t make it new or groundbreaking. Welcome to AI.”
Analysts express cautious optimism about Apple’s move, with Ben Wood from CCS Insight suggesting that while the new personal AI system “should help placate nervous investors,” the ChatGPT integration might reveal and create deeper problems for the firm.
“Apple Intelligence” is not a standalone product or app but will be integrated into every app and Apple product, acting as a writing assistant, a navigation aid, and more. It aims to offer users a seamless experience while emphasizing security and privacy, with some processing occurring on the device itself and larger tasks sent to the cloud without data storage.
While Apple’s decision to integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT tech was widely anticipated, it marks an unusual move for a company known for closely guarding its own products. Analysts speculate that it could be a recognition that even Apple cannot currently compete with ChatGPT’s capabilities, highlighting the AI superpower OpenAI’s current dominance.
