Open AI feels “burned” by Apple’s crappy Chat GPT integration, insiders say - Ars Technica

Overview

Open AI feels “burned” by Apple’s crappy Chat GPT integration, insiders say

Judge orders Apple to give Musk internal messages discussing secretive Chat GPT deal.

Details

Open AI is reportedly exploring legal options after Apple’s Chat GPT integration into its products didn’t live up to the AI firm’s expectations.

When the deal was announced, Apple likened features linking Siri to Chat GPT to its now-infamous deal embedding Google search in the Safari browser, insiders granted anonymity to discuss the “strained” partnership told Bloomberg. And the promise of that excited Open AI, which expected the deal “could generate billions of dollars per year in subscriptions,” an Open AI executive granted anonymity to discuss the partnership told Bloomberg.

Instead, Open AI suspects Apple intentionally failed to promote the integration and fears that the deal may have damaged the Chat GPT brand, sources said.

Specifically, Open AI hates how Apple designed the integration, sources said. Particularly bad was the choice forcing Apple users summoning Siri to also “specifically invoke the word ‘Chat GPT’ when speaking or typing a command,” sources said. That makes it harder for users to access the features, Open AI apparently feels. And Apple’s other choices, like using small windows providing limited information when responding with Chat GPT outputs, seems to ensure that users can easily ignore the features, sources said.

As the Open AI executive explained, Apple didn’t fully explain how the integration would work when the deal came together, so Open AI took a “leap of faith” it now appears to regret.

“When we heard about this opportunity, it sounded amazing: being able to acquire a giant number of customers and have distribution in such a big mobile ecosystem,” the executive said, attempting to explain why Open AI was willing to enter the arrangement blind. Since then, efforts to renegotiate the deal have “stalled,” Reuters reported. And, supposedly due to feeling “burned,” Open AI has declined to enter other partnerships to work on Apple’s AI models, Bloomberg reported.

According to the insiders, Open AI is so disappointed in Apple’s work that the AI firm is now “actively working with an outside legal firm on a range of options that could be formally executed in the near future.”

“We have done everything from a product perspective,” the Open AI executive summed up Open AI’s frustrations to Bloomberg. “They have not, and worse, they haven’t even made an honest effort.”

Supposedly, Open AI is still hoping to resolve its issues with Apple outside of court, if possible. But one option that Open AI may pursue could be accusing Apple of a breach of contract. Going that route wouldn’t necessarily require filing a lawsuit right away, sources suggested.

Apple and Open AI did not respond to Ars’ request to comment.

Most likely, Open AI will delay approaching Apple until after its court battle with Elon Musk concludes, Bloomberg reported. A decision in that litigation is potentially coming next week.

Open AI also faces a court battle with Musk over its Apple deal. However, it may be inconvenient for Musk that tensions between Open AI and Apple have grown since he filed a lawsuit last August. Musk alleged that the deal integrating Chat GPT into Apple products violated antitrust and unfair competition laws, supposedly propping up Open AI to dominate the chatbot market and Apple the smartphone market.

So far, Musk’s lawsuit has survived motions to dismiss, though the judge has yet to comment on its merits. That leaves Apple and Open AI potentially stuck defending the deal at a trial scheduled for October, even if it falls apart.

However, the partnership’s end may make it harder for Musk to uphold his claims of a conspiracy in his lawsuit.

Due to Musk’s fury that his chatbot Grok has never been featured as a “Must Have” app in Apple’s App Store, the lawsuit alleged that Apple and Open AI struck a deal as part of a giant conspiracy to lock out rivals developing chatbots that Musk claimed Apple fears could make smartphones obsolete. As Musk’s theory goes, Apple was so afraid of Musk’s plan to turn X into an “everything app” that it partnered with Open AI to supercharge Chat GPT as a market leader and constrain X’s innovation.

Increasingly problematic for Musk, the looming fallout between Open AI and Apple suggests their allegiance is not that deep. Bloomberg’s sources suggested that Apple was happy to partner with Open AI as its own AI projects failed to launch but over time became less inclined to boost Chat GPT after learning about Open AI’s plans to make its own device that could rival the i Phone. Reuters suggested that Apple was so “rankled” by Open AI teaming up with its former star designer Jony Ive that it lost motivation to help supercharge Chat GPT as Open AI expected.

For Musk, it may become impossible to argue that Open AI and Apple are colluding to keep Apple at the top of the smartphone market when Open AI is working on its own device. And his arguments about Chat GPT’s supposed “exclusivity” are also falling apart, as Apple is now testing Siri integrations with Anthropic’s Claude and Google Gemini.

Open AI’s executive insisted to Bloomberg that Open AI’s potential legal action has nothing to do with Apple expanding its AI partners, emphasizing that the deal was never intended to be exclusive.

With tensions high, Apple and Open AI would probably prefer to keep details about how the deal came together secret. However, although Musk’s lawsuit may be losing steam, it has recently succeeded in forcing Apple and Open AI to be more transparent about the deal.

This week, magistrate judge Hal Ray Jr. denied Musk’s request to see Tim Cook’s internal messages discussing the deal but ordered Apple to share documents by mid-June from Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi.

Federighi “made high-level, strategic decisions about the Apple-Open AI Agreement,” the judge noted, and “may have unique relevant evidence not already produced relating to Apple’s integration of Open AI into Apple Intelligence.” Apple will also have to provide any “documents that refer to potential exclusivity clauses of the artificial intelligence provider for Apple products,” as Musk tries to keep his antitrust fight alive.

It’s possible that Open AI and Apple will make up before Musk’s lawsuit heads to trial this fall. In June, Apple is expected to unveil a revamped Siri that could better promote Chat GPT in ways that resolve at least some of Open AI’s concerns, Bloomberg reported.

Open AI maintains that Musk is distorting antitrust law as part of a “harassment campaign” attacking Open AI to slow down its work, so that Musk’s x AI can catch up. Apple argued that a Musk win would devastate the tech industry by setting an alarming precedent that any deal with a supplier violates antitrust law if other proposals are rejected. Perhaps most damning for Musk’s case, both Open AI and Apple have urged the court to agree that Musk cannot show harm since none of his firms make smartphones.

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Key Takeaways

• Open AI feels “burned” by Apple’s crappy Chat GPT integration, insiders say

• Judge orders Apple to give Musk internal messages discussing secretive Chat GPT deal

• Open AI is reportedly exploring legal options after Apple’s Chat GPT integration into its products didn’t live up to the AI firm’s expectations

• When the deal was announced, Apple likened features linking Siri to Chat GPT to its now-infamous deal embedding Google search in the Safari browser, insiders granted anonymity to discuss the “strained” partnership told Bloomberg

• Instead, Open AI suspects Apple intentionally failed to promote the integration and fears that the deal may have damaged the Chat GPT brand, sources said