Apple left viewers guessing whether it would reveal a major deal with OpenAI for nearly two hours during its Worldwide Developers Conference Monday.
During the company’s annual event, it announced Apple’s new AI initiative, Apple Intelligence, which will include AI-powered updates to Siri and an array of native Apple apps. And just before the WWDC keynote address wrapped up, Apple finally unveiled that it’s partnering with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT 4-o into its latest iPhone operating system (iOS 18), iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia.
Apple Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, said the company in its early AI days wants to give users access to “external models” in addition to its own AI. “We’re starting out with the best of these, the pioneer and market leader ChatGPT from OpenAI,” he said. Siri will have the ability to “tap into ChatGPT’s expertise when it might be helpful” for free.
Federighi gave the following examples:
...if you need menu ideas for an elaborate meal to make for friends using some freshly caught fish and ingredients from your garden, you can just ask Siri. Siri determines that Chat GPT might have good ideas for this, asks your permission to share your question, and presents the answer directly.
You can also include photos with your questions. If you want some advice on decorating, you can take a picture and ask, what kind of plants would go well on this deck? Siri confirms if it’s okay to share your photo with ChatGPT and brings back relevant suggestions.
It’s a seamless integration. In addition to photos, you can also ask questions related to your documents, presentations, or PDFs.
Users will have the option to turn off access to the AI chatbot.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted on X that he’s “very happy to be partnering with apple to integrate chatgpt into their devices later this year!”
The deal was widely anticipated after a report from Bloomberg broke the news last week before it was officially announced.