Apple spurned idea of iPhone AI partnership with Meta months ago

Apple rejected overtures by Meta Platforms to integrate the social networking company’s artificial intelligence chatbot into the iPhone months ago, according to people with knowledge of the matter. 

The two companies are not in discussions about using Meta’s Llama chatbot in an AI partnership and held only brief talks in March, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the situation is private.

The dialogue about a partnership did not reach any formal stage, and Apple has no active plans to integrate Llama. 

The preliminary talks occurred around the time Apple started hashing out deals to use OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Alphabet’s Gemini in its products.

The iPhone maker announced the ChatGPT agreement earlier in June and said it was expecting to offer Gemini in the future. 

Apple decided not to move forward with formal Meta discussions in part because it does not see the company’s privacy practices as stringent enough, according to the people.

Apple has spent years criticising Meta’s technology, and integrating Llama into the iPhone would have been a stark about-turn.

Apple also sees ChatGPT as a superior offering. Google, meanwhile, is already a partner for search in Apple’s Safari web browser, so a future Gemini deal would build on that relationship.

Spokespeople for Apple and Meta declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal reported on June 23 that the two companies were in talks about an AI partnership.

Apple unveiled a suite of AI features at its Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10. The new technology – called Apple Intelligence – includes home-grown tools for summarising notifications, transcribing voice memos and generating custom emoji.

But Apple’s chatbot technology is not as advanced as that of rivals, prompting it to seek out partners. The company also believes that customers will want the ability to switch between different chatbots depending on their needs, similar to how they might hop between Google and Microsoft’s Bing for searches.

Apple continues to talk to AI start-up Anthropic about eventually adding that company’s chatbot as an option, the people said. Apple Intelligence will begin rolling out later in 2024 as part of operating systems for the iPhone, iPad and Mac. 

The current deal with OpenAI does not involve money swopping hands, but Apple will allow paying ChatGPT customers to access their subscriptions within the iOS operating system. That could generate revenue for OpenAI, a percentage of which could be headed to Apple in the form of App Store commissions.

Meta and Apple were on friendlier terms a decade ago, when the iPhone maker was integrating Facebook into iOS.

But the companies have become fierce rivals in recent years, competing over AI, home devices and mixed-reality headsets. BLOOMBERG