After confirming the arrival of ChatGPT on its devices, Apple is in talks with Meta to integrate the artificial intelligence of Mark Zuckerberg’s company into its ecosystem and products. These negotiations were revealed by The Wall Street Journal, and the focus of both companies is to enhance their generative AI services, taking advantage of each other’s technological developments.
The creators of the iPhone already have small language models, integrated into Apple Intelligence, the name that the company gave to its AI. That is why their goal is to find more allies, as they already did with OpenAI, to integrate large models and Meta is an ideal partner, since they have been creating different technologies focused mainly on developers.
The motivations behind this alliance between Apple and Meta
Apple has recently arrived in the generative artificial intelligence market. While it has developed its own smaller AI models, the company has recognized the need to partner with other industry leaders to handle more complex tasks.
Craig Federighi, the company’s software lead, noted at the recent Worldwide Developers Conference that “we wanted to start with the best,” referring to OpenAI’s initial collaboration with ChatGPT.
Meta, on the other hand, is looking for ways to maximize the adoption of its generative AI technology. Since the launch of Llama 2 in July 2023, and later Llama 3 in April of this year, Zuckerberg’s company has achieved greater support and adoption within the industry on these issues.
However, a partnership with Apple could represent a breakthrough for the company, allowing its technology to reach millions of users through the brand’s devices.
The negotiations are not yet finalized and may not materialize. Meta has declined to comment on the dialogues, and Apple has not given a response on the information revealed by The Wall Street Journal.
However, the outlet has learned that the approach the company wants is not a total reinvention, but rather adding AI-powered features to its existing products, such as writing suggestions and custom emojis. This pragmatic approach could be key to large-scale AI adoption, allowing partnerships to be leveraged to exceed the capabilities of their own models.
A deal with Meta would allow Apple to diversify its partnerships in AI, reducing reliance on a single vendor like OpenAI. This is ideal for Facebook owners, because it would be one more way to validate the growth of their technology and the way to distribute their AI to specific users.
In addition, by not seeking direct payments for these collaborations, Apple offers mass distribution to its partners, who in return can sell premium subscriptions through Apple’s platform.
For example, Gene Munster, a veteran analyst at Apple, says that the integration of ChatGPT could double its use, although this will also increase infrastructure costs by 30% to 40%. According to the expert, between 10% and 20% of Apple users could choose to pay for a premium subscription to products such as ChatGPT.
The potential collaboration also marks a turning point in the relationship between Apple and Meta. Tensions between the two companies have persisted for more than a decade.
In 2021, Apple introduced privacy changes to its mobile devices that Meta said resulted in a loss of $10 billion in revenue during 2022. In addition, in April of this year, Zuckerberg’s company published instructions for advertisers to dodge the 30% charge that Apple imposes for “sponsored posts”.
The beginning of more alliances
In addition to OpenAI and Meta, Apple has also held talks with AI startups such as Anthropic and Perplexity. These companies are looking to integrate their technologies into Apple Intelligence, underscoring the company’s strong strategy to offer a range of AI options for its users.
However, the implementation of Apple Intelligence will not be universal. The company has announced that, due to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, it plans to retain this technology in its new operating systems (iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia) within the European region.
Apple argues that the DMA’s interoperability requirements could compromise the privacy and security of user data.
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