Apple products will be integrated with OpenAI’s ChatGPT in December when iOS 18.2 rolls out, which should improve Siri and several other features with smarter AI. On Monday, iOS 18.2 beta testers could see how OpenAI can benefit from a partnership with Apple.
As per the iOS 18.2 beta update spotted by Apple, Apple is providing an option to upgrade to ChatGPT Plus in its Settings app 9 to 5Mac. This will allow Apple users to directly sign up for OpenAI’s premium subscription plan, which costs $20 per month. This could prompt many users to sign up for ChatGPT Plus, a major revenue driver for OpenAI, especially since the free version of ChatGPT can be quite constrained.
Free ChatGPT users will not have access to the latest OpenAI models (such as o1-preview) or premium features such as advanced voice mode. They can also only take two photos per day with Dall-E and cannot send as many messages to the AI chatbot as premium users.
The biggest question looming over the Apple-OpenAI collaboration is how both companies expect to make money from the deal. According to Apple reports doesn’t pay Sam Altman’s startup for integration in money, but rather in exposure. The ability to upgrade to ChatGPT Plus in Settings could be enough to make this whole thing worth it for OpenAI, but only if users actually sign up. Otherwise, OpenAI will be at risk of a enormous influx of novel, free ChatGPT users, which will undoubtedly enhance the costs of AI inference at the startup.
It’s also unclear whether Apple is cutting the revenue generated by OpenAI from signing up for ChatGPT Plus via the Settings app. It’s possible that the iPhone maker is simply betting that having cutting-edge AI features is worth the free exposure OpenAI provides because it will encourage enough customers to upgrade to the novel phones.
Still, it’s an odd deal. Even though Apple allows ChatGPT to power many of its biggest AI updates, the iPhone maker isn’t making the deal exclusive. Apple says it will potentially integrate other developers’ AI models soon including Google Gemini.
In the background of this integration, OpenAI is raising money and losing key executives at an unprecedented rate. Apple was reportedly expected to participate in the latest $6.6 billion round, but… stretched out shortly after OpenAI CTO Mira Murati abruptly left the company.