Apple rejected partnership with Meta to bring its AI chatbot to iOS

A WSJ report on Sunday revealed that Apple and Meta have had discussions about a potential partnership when it comes to AI features. More specifically, it seems Meta wanted to bring its own AI chatbot to iOS 18 – but it turns out that Apple had reportedly rejected such a partnership.

Citing its own sources, Bloomberg reported on Monday that Apple had rejected a proposal to integrate Meta’s AI chatbot with iOS “months ago.” The report says that both companies had “preliminary talks” about a deal around the same time that Apple was also pursuing a partnership with OpenAI and Google.

Apple decided not to move forward with the deal partly because the company doesn’t agree with the Meta’s privacy policies. “Apple has no active plans to integrate Llama,” the report says.

At WWDC 2024, Apple announced a partnership with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into Siri and Apple Intelligence in iOS 18. When Apple’s own AI is not capable of answering a question, users will be prompted if they want ChatGPT to answer it. Apple says that more AI platforms will be added in the future, so that users can choose what works best for them.

Apple chose OpenAI as its first option because it believes that ChatGPT is the best AI chatbot currently available. However, a deal with Google would still be in the plans for the future.

Apple Intelligence will be available later this year as part of the iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia updates. It will be available first in US English, for iPhone 15 Pro, and iPad and Mac models with the M1 chip or later. Support for additional languages and regions will roll out gradually over time.

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