Apple again said to be considering investing in ChatGPT maker OpenAI
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.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
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...
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.
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