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

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.