Apple's list of potential AI partners included Meta, but it passed on ...
Google still stands a chance of being included as an AI service provider on Apple products. Google has spent more than a year integrating artificial intelligence into Android phones with the help of Gemini, and now Apple is trying to do the same with iOS. The company debuted a suite of Apple Intelligence features at WWDC 2024 earlier this month and paired that with an OpenAI partnership. As part of the deal, iPhone users will get access to ChatGPT for free, as an optional addition to Siri.
Apple's Potential AI Partners
A report from The Wall Street Journal reveals that Apple has also had talks with Meta about using its AI on the iPhone. It's unclear what the scope of the Apple and Meta partnership would be. According to the report, a deal is not final and could fall through. However, this would align with prior reports that Apple is looking for more AI companies to work with besides OpenAI. The company is said to be having talks with Google and Anthropic about AI services, in addition to the current OpenAI deal and the rumored Meta AI partnership.
Meta's Focus on AI
Artificial intelligence has slowly become a focus for Meta, the company best known for its social media sites — including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads — and virtual reality Quest headsets. The company's Meta AI appeared on the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses, which have quietly become one of the best products with a wearable AI assistant. In April 2024, Meta shipped an update to the Meta Ray-Bans that added multimodal AI support to the glasses. For the uninitiated, multimodal AI simply means you can interact with the Meta AI assistant in multiple ways.
Potential Implications of an Apple/Meta Partnership
While OpenAI has a GPT-4o modal supporting multimodal input, it seems that the version of ChatGPT on iPhones only supports text. Since the details of a possible Apple/Meta partnership are unconfirmed, this is pure speculation. In addition to working on the Meta Ray-Bans, Meta also added a universal Meta AI chatbot to the search bars of its most popular apps. Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger all have Meta AI front and center. With these developments, it's clear that AI is a priority for Meta moving forward.
Apple's Approach to AI
Whether it's Meta or another company, it seems likely that Apple will continue looking for someone to partner with for more AI products. It's an interesting strategy that seems to be the complete opposite of what Google wants to do with Android. Apple is willing to work with anyone it can to make its platforms the most versatile on the market when it comes to AI. In the future, we could see an iPhone that uses Apple Intelligence, ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta AI, and more to handle different tasks.
Conclusion
The role reversal should show the differences in priorities for Apple, Meta, and Google. Apple just wants to sell iPhones, and if it needs to partner with multiple AI companies to do that, so be it. Google wants to keep everything in-house, presumably to help train its AI models, serve ads, and collect data. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Apple shares the same sentiment.
