Apple has held talks with both OpenAI and Google to use their chatbot technology to power some of iOS 18’s upcoming artificial intelligence features, according to a report from Bloomberg. If a deal goes through, Apple could use ChatGPT or Gemini for cloud-based AI features as part of the next operating system for the iPhone.
The reported discussions between Apple, Google, and OpenAI are notable for a few reasons. First, it suggests that Apple is further behind than thought in some of its AI endeavors. The company was the only tech giant that didn’t go all-in on AI in 2023 after ChatGPT took the world by storm the year before. Since then, Apple has been scrambling to catch up with its competitors. But if the company is looking to secure licensing deals with Google or OpenAI to use one of their chatbots, it clearly does not think its own chatbot can compete at this time.
Another thing that makes these discussions notable, when it comes to Apple and Google, is that if Apple were to license the search giant’s Gemini chatbot, such a deal would likely amount to the most important collaboration between the two companies since Apple and Google entered into an agreement nearly 15 years ago to have Google’s search engine be the default search engine on the iPhone. Google now reportedly now pays Apple $20 billion a year for that deal—one that is the center of an ongoing antitrust lawsuit against Google by the U.S. Department of Justice.
We’ve reached out to Apple, Google, and OpenAI for comment and will update this post if we hear back.
How both parties could benefit
Bloomberg did not give any details about the financial arrangements between Apple and Google or Apple and OpenAI, should the companies decide to work together. But an Apple-Google agreement stands to benefit both companies significantly. For Apple, it would allow the company to offer a chatbot on its iPhone without needing to wait until its own internal chatbot is ready to go. For Google, Gemini on the iPhone would give the search giant’s chatbot access to a potential user base of two billion devices, potentially allowing Google to surpass the usage of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Whether regulators would have any issues with either partnership remains to be seen. Of course, an Apple deal with OpenAI or Google may not come to fruition as the talks are ongoing. But if it does, we are likely to receive official word about any eventual deal in early June when Apple is expected to hold its next Worldwide Developers Conference and show off the generative AI capabilities it is expected to bake into iOS 18.
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