Apple may be in talks with Meta to add another generative AI provider to iOS 18

AppleInsider

Add another name to the list -- Apple has reportedly spoken to Meta about integrating the social media giant's generative artificial intelligence tech.

Adopting Meta may have implications for Apple AI privacy

For the last six months, there's been debate about how Apple will implement artificial intelligence on the iPhone and Mac. How Apple Intelligence works was a bit of a surprise, with other rumors talking about direct integration and nothing Apple-made, and others talking about AI App Stores.

The latest report claims that Apple has been in talks with Meta for generative AI.

This negotiation with Meta isn't outside the realm of possibility. Both Previous rumors and Craig Federighi himself have said that Apple is looking at working with multiple partners to deliver an assortment of options for consumers.

Meta is now the fifth name tied to big tech negotiations to put generative AI on iPhones. The main name tied to the effort is obviously OpenAI, as ChatGPT 4o is an option in iOS 18. Google has also been named as a possible participant.

Anthropic and Perplexity have also been mentioned, at least in passing.

The deal may be similar to how OpenAI has structured its cooperation with Apple. Reportedly, Apple isn't looking to pay anything at all for AI integrations, and instead will allow Meta or any other AI vendor it approves to sell subscriptions to its AI service through iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.

As with the rest of the rumors about AI dance partners, it's not clear how far along the negotiations are. Sunday's report by the Wall Street Journal is clear that the deal with Meta is far from complete, and may collapse.

To us, it seems more likely that Apple is dealing with AI providers the same way they handle hardware component suppliers instead of the App Store approach. Having multiple providers on the hook, as it were, in this case may ultimately give users more choice, but will also keep costs down for Apple.

Apple Intelligence testing starts at some point in the summer of 2024. It's not clear exactly when, nor how complete the initial testing versions will be.

Rumor Score: Possible

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RonnyDaddy

I don’t like it, but I’ll wait to see what it implies exactly.

napoleon_phoneapart

What if the two AIs start fighting? Does mankind pay the ultimate price?

I'm heading for the mountains. 

danox

I will never use Meta, Google, or Microsoft AI solutions on the Apple platform but would use or try any new companies coming up.

Anilu_777

Meta AI? Hard pass. The idea of having anything Zuckerberg is in control of powering the AI in my phone is creepy. 

chasm

Anilu_777 said:

Meta AI? Hard pass. The idea of having anything Zuckerberg is in control of powering the AI in my phone is creepy. 

Understandable, BUT: Apple has already demonstrated how they will handle handing off user requests to third parties -- they will ask you if you want the request sent to <outside AI provider>, and you can say no. In the betas so far, this only occurs with one partner -- OpenAI's ChatGPT -- but they will likely add some additional partners. Apple put extra "guardrails" on the OpenAI handling of certain requests, and they are likely to impose the same restrictions on other partners.

The good news is that Meta is unlikely to agree to that, so this may be a non-story from the get-go.  

But even if they did, they would just be a user choice to send their request to that service instead of OpenAI or Google or whatever other service complies with Apple's terms. IOW, the user is in control of this at all times.

ddawson100

Absolutely bonkers if true but it does flesh out the intentions more about Apple Intelligence. Apple wants to maintain the relationship with their customers and willing to make their customers available to third parties on Apple’s terms only.

dutchlord

I don’t want Google, Meta or OpenAI as “service provider” on my phone and suck data from my device. Why buy Apple as Apple uses other AI competitors on my device???

avon b7

napoleon_phoneapart said:

What if the two AIs start fighting? Does mankind pay the ultimate price?

I'm heading for the mountains. 

Curiously AI is being used by the 'bad guys' in cybersecurity related issues but the 'good guys' are also using it to counter threats. 

DAalseth

Remember when Apple bragged about protecting your privacy?

IF this is true you can flush that away. 

chasm

dutchlord said:

I don’t want Google, Meta or OpenAI as “service provider” on my phone and suck data from my device. Why buy Apple as Apple uses other AI competitors on my device???

You might try actually reading the article before commenting.

None of what you feverishly imagine happening is happening.

Apple is offering the OPTION of **anonymously** leveraging another resource IF YOU CHOOSE TO DO SO. None of these companies have access to any of your data except for the query you pass on for them to answer if you decide to do that, by design of Apple.

Apple has not suddenly completely changed its policies regarding user privacy. Unclench and relax.

DAalseth

chasm said:

dutchlord said:

I don’t want Google, Meta or OpenAI as “service provider” on my phone and suck data from my device. Why buy Apple as Apple uses other AI competitors on my device???

You might try actually reading the article before commenting.

None of what you feverishly imagine happening is happening.

Apple is offering the OPTION of **anonymously** leveraging another resource IF YOU CHOOSE TO DO SO. None of these companies have access to any of your data except for the query you pass on for them to answer if you decide to do that, by design of Apple.

Apple has not suddenly completely changed its policies regarding user privacy. Unclench and relax.

Google, Meta, and OpenAI have all been caught multiple time lying about what they were accessing, aggressively working to mine data that they were specifically told they had no right to. These deals WILL put some of their code on our devices. All of these pop ups that ask if you want to use ChatGPT, or any of the other 3rd party systems is say they are not going to send the query to them, they don’t say they won’t be doing anything in the background. It would be hugely naive to assume they will not try to leverage that. Apple and others will have to PROVE that those three are not and can not access our data.