Apple again said to be considering investing in ChatGPT maker OpenAI

AppleInsider

Apple is reportedly considering making investment into OpenAI, makers of the popular ChatGPT service, in a move that could shore up Apple's standing in the AI marketplace.

ChatGPT Logo

As part of the Apple Intelligence initiative arriving later in the year as part of iOS 18, Apple will allow users to connect Siri to ChatGPT to handle queries. However, the involvement of the two companies could be deepened by a cash injection from Apple.

There are talks for Apple to invest into OpenAI as part of a new funding round, according to the Wall Street Journal. It is unknown how much the investment will be, but it's likely to be in the billions.

A previous report revealed that venture capitalist company Thrive Capital is leading the round itself, which is anticipated to total several billion dollars in value.

Apple probably wouldn't be the only major tech company to put money into the venture. Microsoft has already invested $13 billion into OpenAI since 2019, owns a 49% share of its profits, and is also believed to be putting more in as part of the ropund.

Following the partnership announcement at WWDC, Apple was reportedly looking for a new board obserber role at OpenAI, one that could've been occupied by Phil Schiller. However, that July rumor was quashed as Microsoft resigned its own observer seat.

For Apple, the investment is a logical move since it is working directly with the company in improving its Apple Intelligence effort. It could also allow Apple to deepen the integration, potentially doing so in a similar way to Microsoft and its own products.

OpenAI has already released a ChatGPT app for Mac, though it did encounter some initial launch problems.



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danox

It will be interesting however within Apple insiders in Apple know, how good Apple Intelligence combined with OpenAI will be.

Microsoft’s recent performance with Recall and CloudStrike doesn’t lead to much confidence that they can be a big long-term catalyst to OpenAI value not like Apple if they execute on Apple Intelligence with Apple Silicon, those M2 Apple servers, and the software in the background.

cpsro

I've been more impressed by Claude from Anthropic.

mpantone

Hopefully someday Apple Intelligence will run spell check before articles to AppleInsider are submitted...

  

If only someone would create a standalone, manually invoked spell check in the interim... If LLMs already help students write term papers and cubicle monkeys write e-mails, why not news articles? Ah, to dream...

  

dewme

I’m quite happy with ChatGPT so far for what I use it for, which is mainly looking up help related information. I still remember when apps came with huge help libraries, for example most of Microsoft’s office productivity and development platforms. Looking stuff up inside these massive proprietary help systems, even ones built using Microsoft’s help framework, was always slow and inconvenient, but you had no other option. On the development side, keeping these systems updated was a pain. 

At some point I found that I could get better help faster by searching the web in a browser. With ChatGPT the ease of searching for help has been taken up several notches and is presented in a much more consumable format. There is of course a probability the you’ll get answers from ChatGPT that are fabricated out of thin air, but mainly for esoteric things or apps that are very niche. 

For this type of content I’m okay with it hitting the web for answers because that’s what I’ve been doing for decades. 

byronl

cpsro said:

I've been more impressed by Claude from Anthropic.

Same

gatorguy

cpsro said:

I've been more impressed by Claude from Anthropic.

You and Amazon both. They're reportedly integrating Antropics Claude in a subscription Alexa service instead of their own home grow AI which appears to be a fail. 

michelb76

cpsro said:

I've been more impressed by Claude from Anthropic.

Until another model comes along and takes that crown. I'm pretty sure Apple is aware of the competition. We don't have any insights into long-term decisions, plans and developments.

michelb76

danox said:

It will be interesting however within Apple insiders in Apple know, how good Apple Intelligence combined with OpenAI will be.

Microsoft’s recent performance with Recall and CloudStrike doesn’t lead to much confidence that they can be a big long-term catalyst to OpenAI value not like Apple if they execute on Apple Intelligence with Apple Silicon, those M2 Apple servers, and the software in the background.

Apple's performance on certain parts of their software isn't great either, there haven been plenty of disasters in the past, and Apple has 0 experience rolling out software at the scale and breadth of microsoft, so it's a bit weird to compare these. Also, Apple is probably just going to use OpenAI or any other non-Apple model as an addon, meaning it doesn't really matter for most people.

gatorguy

It's probably Apple covering their butts, making sure they have access to at least one of the premium AI providers, and keep a closer eye on the state of development. It doesn't mean they'll integrate with Open AI anymore than they already are, but it does keep a door open in case their own plans don't work out. Google and Amazon are both major Anthropic investors, again covering their butts, and especially in Amazon's case that's a good move and for the same reason it would be good for Apple. 

As an aside, I had been unaware until this past week that OpenAI was edging close to bankruptcy, and with no clear path to profitability, which is why they're going for another fundraiser. Fortunate for them there's Big Tech around to bail them out. 
https://www.asiafinancial.com/openais-8-5-billion-bills-spark-bankruptcy-speculation