what you should Know
- Apple and OpenAI have reportedly signed an agreement to introduce AI in their recent iOS 18 update.
- The iPhone maker is reportedly working on a separate deal with Google to bring Gemini to the iPhone as an “option.”
- Google will likely take this opportunity to continue to hold the competitive edge in search over Microsoft.
Apple will reportedly make its debut in the AI landscape. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple and OpenAI recently signed a deal to bring AI technology and advancements to the iPhone through the long-awaited iOS 18 update.
The official announcement is likely to be part of Apple’s annual developer conference, WWDC 2024, scheduled for June 10, 2024. With Siri looking outdated, Apple is looking to integrate not one, but two AI assistants into its sophisticated software.
Despite closing the deal with AI-heavy OpenAI, Apple is reportedly in discussions with Google that could potentially see Gemini make its way to the iPhone as an alternative to ChatGPT.
However, Gurman says we may not know the intricate details of that agreement until next month. This potentially indicates that both sides may be working on major details of the agreement, including licensing and more.
Leading up to this revelation, a former OpenAI employee referred to Sam Altman as a “brilliant master strategist,” while mentioning OpenAI’s deal with Apple and the iPhone outside of the Microsoft partnership.
During the OpenAI Spring Update event, the hot startup debuted the GPT-4o “magic” model with real-time audio, vision and text reasoning capabilities and an exclusive ChatGPT app for Mac users. Some saw the move as a snub to Windows, despite Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar investment and adoption of OpenAI technology.
OpenAI explained that the exclusive launch prioritizes where most of its users are, the Mac. This explanation is consistent with a recent report by Appfigures, which showed that the new GPT-4o model contributed to the biggest jump in ChatGPT’s mobile revenue and downloads (with a huge percentage attributed to iOS users).
Google continues to hold a competitive edge over Microsoft despite recent setbacks
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has openly admitted that Google is not playing fair with Bing in search. He pointed out that Google and Apple put Bing at a competitive disadvantage, and also said he was willing to part with up to $15 billion a year to attract such a deal that would make Bing the default search engine on the iPhone.
Interestingly, Mozilla published a new report detailing the deceptive tactics and malicious designs that Microsoft uses to give the Edge browser a competitive edge on Windows. Elsewhere, Microsoft almost sold its search engine to Apple in 2018, though the deal fell through due to search quality issues.
Last year, the European Commission named Google as a watchdog, prompting the company to introduce complex measures under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), including the ability to switch the default browser and search engine on Android phones and more.
During Microsoft’s earnings call, Microsoft’s CEO announced that Bing has surpassed 140 million daily active users and attributes a huge percentage of its success to advances in AI. Google, on the other hand, came under fire after its AI search feature generated wrong and misleading answers to queries, including recommendations for eating rocks, glue and more.
Meanwhile, Microsoft recently announced that it is slowing the progress of Copilot in Windows 11. It plans to use the time to improve and enhance existing features and experiences.
