Rumors of a partnership between Apple and OpenAI have been circulating for a while, but it appears the two companies have finally struck a deal to bring ChatGPT functionality to iOS 18 and other Apple operating systems.
According to a recent The information report (via AppleInsider), OpenAI has agreed to help the iPhone maker bring AI features to its various platforms, and while the details of the deal are not yet known, we’re betting Apple’s Siri voice assistant could soon be overhauled with OpenAI’s ChatGPT -powering large language model (LLM).
What exactly does that mean? It’s hard to say for sure at this point – Apple will likely tell us more at WWDC 2024 in June – but it seems safe to expect that a new and improved Siri will use the power of ChatGPT to answer voice-based questions on a more responsive, accurate and nuanced way than is currently possible.
This isn’t to say that Siri is about to become ChatGPT, except in name. Apple has always seen – and we suspect still sees – Siri as an assistant rather than a chatbot, and the company will certainly continue to prioritize privacy over do-it-all functionality.
But the on-device processing behind Siri in its current form is simply not up to par in 2024. As such, this reported deal could see Apple leverage OpenAI’s ChatGPT LLM to boost Siri’s question-response capabilities in a way that doesn’t compromise. user privacy.
Think of it this way: Right now, Siri is a fairly useless middleman between the user and Google. You ask Siri a question and you’re presented with a list of popular Google search results that may or may not give you the answer you’re looking for. Crucially, Siri doesn’t tell Google that it was you who asked the question.
A ChatGPT-powered Siri could work in much the same way, but instead of returning a list of Google search results for you to manually search, it could anonymously ask ChatGPT for a simple, concise answer to your question, which then passes it on. to you.
But wait! “How does this solution differ from the voice-enabled ChatGPT app, which is already available on iPhones?” I hear you ask. As good as ChatGPT’s built-in voice feature is, it’s not embedded into your iPhone in the same way as Siri. This reported deal between OpenAI and Apple could solve this problem, combining the benefits of assistant and chatbot in a way that retains Apple’s signature style and simplicity.
The deal would apparently also benefit OpenAI. A recent survey found that only a small portion of people with access to ChatGPT use it on a daily basis, and while that lack of usage is likely due to questions of accuracy rather than accessibility, there’s no denying that building in generative AI tools in consumer products would encourage more users to adopt them in their daily lives.
As mentioned, we’ll likely hear Apple shed more light on its reported OpenAI partnership at WWDC 2024, which kicks off on June 10. For information on how to tune in to the highly anticipated developer conference, check out our how to watch WWDC 2024 guide.