WSJ: Apple held talks on integrating AI Meta* into Apple Intelligence
The Cupertino corporation has developed its own small AI models. However, to solve more complex and specific problems, Apple turned to the creators of other models, including OpenAI and Google. Thus, ChatGPT appeared in Apple Intelligence. Soon, Apple products will likely include Gemini.
Apple's head of software engineering, Craig Federighi, said the company wanted to start with the best by choosing ChatGPT.
In addition to Google and Meta, Apple is in talks with startups Anthropic and Perplexity to incorporate their AI models into Apple Intelligence. If the Cupertino team enters into agreements with partners, then users will have the opportunity to choose external AI models in addition to Apple's internal systems.
According to WSJ sources, in negotiations with AI developers, Apple did not seek to ensure that one of the parties paid the other. Instead, modelers will be able to sell premium subscriptions to their services through Apple Intelligence. As with the app store, Apple will retain a portion of revenue from subscription purchases.
The negotiations have not yet concluded, but they may fail, WSJ notes. The deals with Apple will expand the mass distribution of AI developers' products, but it is unknown how cost-effective it will be for them.
OpenAI offers a free version of ChatGPT as part of Apple Intelligence, but customers have the option of using premium chatbot accounts on their Apple devices. The parties expect the use of ChatGPT to double as a result of the partnership. Against this background, OpenAI’s infrastructure costs will increase by 30-40%, says Deepwater Asset Management analyst Gene Munster. He believes that 10% to 20% of Apple gadget owners will pay for a ChatGPT subscription, which should bring in billions of dollars.
Last summer, Meta launched a large language model, Llama 2. In the spring of this year, the corporation released variations of Llama 3 with 8 billion and 70 billion parameters. Meta assured that AI models are significantly superior to previous generation solutions. The deal with Apple will be a major victory for Mark Zuckerberg's company.
The announcement of the partnership is likely to put an end to the conflict between both companies, which has persisted for more than a decade. In 2021, Apple made changes to the privacy policies of its mobile devices. This has made managing ad integrations for Facebook and other apps much more difficult.
This move, Meta would later claim, cost it $10 billion in lost profits. In April, Meta published instructions for bypassing Apple's policy to avoid paying the 30% service fee.
Collaborating with other AI developers will allow Apple to avoid becoming overly dependent on OpenAI. It is still unknown to what extent the corporation will make its new AI platform available to third-party companies.
Federighi explained that it makes sense for Apple to offer multiple variations of AI models, so users will be offered products to solve different problems. People will want to use those experiences that are probably not included in Apple Intelligence, Federighi concluded.