Report: OpenAI angered by Apple partnership, may sue
ChatGPT is actually deeply integrated into iOS and Co. But OpenAI believes that Apple is not promoting the feature as agreed – and plans to send lawyers.
OpenAI boss Sam Altman.
(Image: FotoField / Shutterstock.com)
According to a report by the financial news agency Bloomberg, OpenAI is not sufficiently benefiting from a major deal with Apple – and is now even considering sending lawyers. This concerns the partnership that has existed since the introduction of Apple Intelligence in October 2024, which allows users to easily (and free up to a certain limit) access ChatGPT when Apple's AI system doesn't know what to do.
Apparently, OpenAI is not seeing the hoped-for “benefits” from the cooperation and is even accusing Apple of breach of contract. The reason: Apple is allegedly not sufficiently promoting the functions in its operating systems iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, and is even “hiding” them. This suggests that OpenAI cannot achieve the hoped-for usage intensity from Apple's billions of users.
Not enough subscribers generated through Apple
The entire partnership is therefore considered strained. OpenAI's lawyers are now actively working on legal action, which could even lead to a lawsuit. However, according to Bloomberg, the first step is a “cease and desist” letter to inform Apple that it is in breach of contract. To deal with the problem, OpenAI has also sought help from external lawyers in recent days, according to the report.
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The fact that legal action is being planned at all indicates that the cooperation is apparently broken. However, it is still unclear whether it will ultimately lead to an actual lawsuit. Among other things, OpenAI had hoped to gain more subscribers through the partnership who would be willing to pay at least just under 23 euros per month for ChatGPT, which would help with the planned IPO. But that apparently hasn't happened. OpenAI apparently holds Apple responsible for this. They had hoped for deeper integration into Apple's apps and better placement with the voice assistant Siri. OpenAI believes that ChatGPT is not easy enough to find.
Data-saving integration as a possible problem
Meanwhile, Apple is said to have had internal concerns about deeper ChatGPT integration. The company doubts that OpenAI adequately protects user data. In fact, ChatGPT can also be used anonymously under iOS, iPadOS, and macOS; Apple has implemented a kind of proxy for this. However, since the announcement of the partnership, for which Apple allegedly pays no money (but neither does OpenAI), there have been a whole series of changes to the situation between the two companies. For example, Apple has decided to bring Google's Gemini on board as an official AI partner in its systems to finally make Siri smarter. Apple gets deep access to the model and can also run it in its own data centers, which was never possible with OpenAI.
Furthermore, the ChatGPT maker is developing into a direct Apple competitor: after hiring former Apple design boss Jony Ive, the company is said to be working on AI gadgets or, more recently, even on its own smartphone. Apple cannot like any of this, and it is likely to strain the relationship. According to Bloomberg, however, OpenAI will only sue Apple (should it actually come to that) after a lengthy legal battle between OpenAI and Elon Musk, which ultimately concerns control over OpenAI, has ended.
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