Apple could bring ChatGPT to Siri in a more integrated way
A rumor around Apple’s AI initiatives suggests the company could turn to third parties instead of relying on its own Apple Intelligence for an upgraded Siri, but there’s likely a different story.
Apple has been in some hot water optically since it announced Apple Intelligence upgrades that never shipped. More zealous customers and shareholders feel betrayed by the company, and lawsuits have even sprung up because of it.
However, according to a report from Bloomberg, Apple is exploring several options around how it can bring more powerful AI tools to its platforms. Specifically, it seems Apple could be looking to Anthropic or OpenAI to run the backend of an AI-powered Siri.
Or, at least, that’s what anonymous “people familiar with the matter” have shared. The report leans into this reasoning, flawed as it is, though there’s likely a better explanation for Apple’s discussions with the companies.
What the secret people are saying
It seems Craig Federighi and Mike Rockwell believe Apple Intelligence is inferior to other models and are seeking out external help. The people familiar with the situation suggest multiple talks are underway to develop special versions of ChatGPT and Claude for Apple’s Private Cloud Compute servers.
The move has allegedly caused frustration among Apple employees, which threaten to take some of Meta’s or other competitor’s lucrative deals and leave. The team consists of about 100 people, and Apple has even had to allegedly make special deals to keep some of the staff on.
Of course, as with anything shared by some anonymous tipster, it needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Employees that speak out in such ways usually have an axe to grind, and there’s nothing more salacious than a rumor that Apple’s teams are crumbling.
Whatever the people’s reasons for leaking, let’s examine this information from a less jaded perspective.
Apple’s third-party AI gambit
Apple already works with OpenAI and Google on features that coincide with Apple Intelligence. Rumors have consistently pointed to Google Gemini eventually coming to iPhone as an alternative option to ChatGPT when speaking to Siri.
Apple Intelligence already works with third party AI companies
There’s also the new partnership with Anthropic to integrate Claude Sonnet into Xcode. It is clear Apple has already been investing heavily into third-party AI uses, so this report shouldn’t be a surprise.
Judging by how Federighi and Greg Joswiak discussed Apple Intelligence during WWDC interviews, it is hard to believe that they’d have a completely different opinion internally. Instead, while they are disappointed with being seen as behind other companies in AI, they’ve asserted they’re running a completely different race.
They even hinted at Apple’s partnership with Google for search as how it was handling AI. Which is bringing in an external party that’s the best at what it does to power something on iPhone.
It is certainly likely that Apple is in discussions with Anthropic and OpenAI to build custom models that can run on Private Cloud Compute servers, but not to replace Apple Intelligence as a backend, but to support it.
Today, when a user asks Siri to contact ChatGPT with a request, it is reaching out to the web and uploading data. Instead, custom versions running in Apple’s servers would be ironclad with privacy restrictions and guarantee user data is safe.
It would also mean enabling more private kinds of data being shared to the AI tools.
While the report suggests this is Apple’s failure in AI and reads as the usual doom and gloom expected in Apple reporting, the reality is likely much less severe. Apple’s willingness to work with other AI companies to ensure users have private and secure access to many popular models should be seen as a boon and a victory.
Apple Intelligence is running its own race, and Apple is at the forefront of ensuring private and secure AI can exist without siphoning critical and private user data. The Siri powered by Apple Intelligence is no doubt still coming, but it may have some third-party plugins from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and others that give users plenty of choice while remaining private.
