This past Monday, at the Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple announced one of the most anticipated collaborations of the year: its partnership with OpenAI to incorporate ChatGPT into iOS 18. Despite the big news, neither Apple nor OpenAI have revealed many details about the agreement. However, a recent report from Bloomberg has shed some light on this interesting collaboration and what both companies are paying for it.
A win-win all the way
According to the report, the collaboration between Apple and OpenAI will not involve direct monetary exchanges. Mark Gurman explains that this agreement “is not expected to generate significant revenue for either party – at least initially.” Therefore, neither Apple will pay OpenAI, nor will OpenAI financially compensate Apple.
What gives value to this collaboration is not the money, but the opportunity to expand the exposure of OpenAI’s technology and brand. By integrating ChatGPT into Siri and the new writing tools of the system, Apple is providing unprecedented visibility to OpenAI’s technology to hundreds of millions of its devices. A visibility that is considered by Apple to be “equal or greater value” than any monetary payment.
At least for now, because according to Gurman, Apple intends to establish revenue-sharing agreements with artificial intelligence companies. In these possible future agreements, Apple would receive a percentage of the revenue generated by the monetization of chatbots on its platforms.
Remember that the integration of ChatGPT will be available at no additional cost in iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia if we decide to activate this feature. For now, we will have to wait for more details, but Apple has already announced that if we are ChatGPT Plus subscribers, we will be able to link our account to the system to enjoy the new models and any advancements that OpenAI reserves for subscribers.
The truth is that the market of over a billion iPhones that Apple has worldwide represents a great scenario to launch, promote, and expand services. It may surprise us in the more technological environment that many of us move in, but it is clear that there are many people who know nothing more than the name of ChatGPT, or even that, and have never considered trying the service. Now, even though Musk wants to ban Apple devices for his workers, with this OpenAI integration, their chatbot will be available to virtually everyone. This is good news for users and an incentive for more companies to offer their AIs on Apple systems. Once again, it’s great news for users.
