Apple (AAPL) just made its first major move in the already cutthroat race of A.I. among Big Tech companies. At its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) today (June 10), the iPhone maker announced a partnership with OpenAI that will see the latest version of ChatGPT integrated into various Apple products and support “Apple Intelligence,” Apple’s own interpretation of A.I. that prioritizes privacy and user experience, according to CEO Tim Cook and his top lieutenants.
The announcement marks Apple’s initial foray into the world of A.I., a space that has boosted the market caps of competing tech companies like Microsoft and Alphabet. Apple Intelligence will be free and made available this summer but only on newer devices, including iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPads and Macs powered by Apple’s M1 or newer chips. While unveiling a host of A.I.-powered tools changing how users interact with photos, writing and a range of apps, the company framed its system as one that will prioritize privacy above all.
“Recent developments in generative intelligence and large language models offer powerful capabilities that provide the opportunity to take the experience of using Apple products to new heights,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said during a keynote presentation today. The system will be integrated into product experiences, grounded in the personal context of users and built with privacy “from the ground up,” he added. “Together, all of this goes beyond artificial intelligence—it’s personal intelligence, and it’s the next big step for Apple.”
How will ChatGPT be integrated into Apple products?
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was in attendance at today’s event as Apple revealed its plans to bring ChatGPT to its devices. The latest version of OpenAI’s language model, GPT-4o, will be integrated into Siri to help the virtual assistant better answer questions. Siri will also ask users for permission to share questions and any relevant documents and images with ChatGPT when useful. ChatGPT will also be integrated—for free—into Apple’s new systemwide writing features to help users generate text and complementary images across apps like Notes and Mail. “Apple shares our commitment to safety and innovation, and this partnership aligns with OpenAI’s mission to make advanced A.I. accessible to everyone,” Altman said in a press release. “Together with Apple, we’re making it easier for people to benefit from what A.I. can offer.” The two companies didn’t disclose financial details. OpenAI has made a slew of deals with media organizations to access their content for training GPT.
Other features introduced under Apple Intelligence include “Genmoji,” which will allow users to create custom emoji-like images through personal descriptions. Apple’s writing tools, meanwhile, will be updated to offer rewrite options, poetic interpretations of text and the opportunity for users to alter the tone of a message to make it friendly, professional or concise. Emails will be filtered by urgency, while rough digital sketches will be turned into polished drawings through the use of a tool called Image Wand.
Apple Intelligence was built with “privacy at the core,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, while delivering remarks at the WWDC. While many A.I. features will be able to run directly on Apple devices, the company revealed that it has also developed a new cloud network called Private Cloud Compute that can draw from server-based models for larger requests and won’t store any user data.
In addition to its integration of ChatGPT, the company plans on adding support for other A.I. models in the future, according to Federighi. “This is a moment we’ve been working towards for a long time,” he said.