Report: Apple Intelligence expansion may include paid features

Apple is considering a paid future for aspects of its Apple Intelligence service that would expand to a subscription model for additional features and more AI partners.

The introduction of Apple Intelligence has offered a wealth of AI features at no cost for owners of the top iPhone 15 models. However, as Apple Intelligence expands to more services and more partners, a subscription model for some offerings could be ahead.

A new report from Bloomberg has speculated that Apple intends to charge extra for future additional capabilities within Apple Intelligence. This expansion would follow the model — and could even be part of — the existing iCloud+ service.

In addition to a potential subscription for certain advanced Apple Intelligence capabilities, the company has already positioned itself to get a cut of subscriptions it generates for the paid levels of OpenAI's ChatGPT and other third-party AI services.

Currently, the company offers free and anonymous access to OpenAI's GPT-4o technology without setting up a ChatGPT account. The agreement with Apple also prevents OpenAI from using data from Apple users' queries to train its technology.

Apple has made the option of passing a query on to ChatGPT available in Apple Intelligence if the scope of the query is outside the built-in models' parameters. This would include requests requiring specialized knowledge, such as medical or legal databases, or larger queries that are not part of the on-device Large Language Models (LLMs).

Apple has been said to be in talks with other AI providers to potentially offer additional outside options. These partners might work with Apple to offer pro-level subscriptions to Apple Intelligence users in the future.

There is currently no timetable for the introduction of any additional paid features, assuming the report is accurate. Apple is likely to limit any subscription opportunities until a larger set of users have iPhones and other devices that can run Apple Intelligence, which would develop over the next several years.

21 Comments

araquen 13 comments · 9 Years

About 4 months ago

I am skeptical. Apple Intelligence is not a product, and everyone gets that wrong. Apple Intelligence is functionality that is intended to enhance and improve the various platforms Apple has (macOS, iOS, iPadOS, etc). How do you monetize that without monetizing the OS? An OS Apple offers for free.

I highly doubt Apple will start charging again for their OS, just to monetize Apple Intelligence. Rather, what Apple is more likely to do is use Apple Intelligence to enhance the user experience for services. Perhaps “Enhanced AppleTV+” or “Enhanced AppleMusic” where the AI infrastructure is used to enhance the users’ experiences on those services. And I am on the fence about charging for that extra functionality. If Apple boosts prices for their services, it would be for far more than just “look it has AI now."

At the end of the day, it is easy to predict how Apple is going to do something once you understand that Apple is a hardware manufacturer first and foremost. Their goal is to have you buy their devices, originally the Mac. Even the iPhone was originally intended to be a supplement to the Mac, and Apple shifted gears when the iPhone proved to be as widely popular as it had become. But regardless of device - Apple wants to sell you their hardware. And they want to justify the premium consumers pay. So EVERYTHING ELSE Apple does is intended to be a value-add to make it worthwhile to have invested in Apple’s hardware. Everything. Mail. Messages. Pages. FaceTime. Numbers. Keynote. AppleMusic. Apple Arcade. iCloud. AppleOne. All the software and services are there to give your Mac, your iPad, your iPhone something to do without being dependent on the “kindness of strangers.” Because Apple hasn’t forgotten (nor have long-time Mac users), there was a time where developers were cheerfully refusing to develop for Apple offerings.

People call it “walled garden” but that assumes an even playing field. For decades, Apple has been on the periphery of popular tech, and barely anyone was developing for the Mac. The iPhone was largely developed because prior to that, not a single cell phone manufacturer would provide interoperability between their devices and the Mac (and I loved my Motorola flip phone, but its lack of connectivity to my Mac was a royal pain in my ***). The iPhone was the first cell phone Mac users could sync with their computer. From that point, Apple’s offerings remain consistent with: how do we (Apple) provide solutions that extend the efficacy of the products our customers already own? How do we keep improving the value of our brand to our consumers?

Apple’s goal isn’t to sell us an Apple Intelligence product. That’s Google’s world. Apple’s goal is to use Apple Intelligence as the infrastructural foundation for having Apple solutioning a “personal digital assistant” for their customers. That isn’t a product. It is core functionality of the hardware and software systems Apple provides.

But pundits (especially those driven by the limited vision of Wall Street) can’t understand this, so keep getting it wrong.

Trust me. Once you start looking at Apple as a hardware manufacturer first and foremost, whose business model is based on the idea of providing a boutique experience for their customers (who have paid a premium for such treatment) you’ll have a better understanding on how Apple intends to leverage its software and services solutions.

lam92103 145 comments · 4 Years

About 4 months ago

Ofcourse. Why else do you think investors are shoveling billions into AI & GPUs?

shrave10 65 comments · 9 Years

About 4 months ago

araquen said:

I am skeptical. Apple Intelligence is not a product, and everyone gets that wrong. Apple Intelligence is functionality that is intended to enhance and improve the various platforms Apple has (macOS, iOS, iPadOS, etc). How do you monetize that without monetizing the OS? An OS Apple offers for free.

Bundling AI features as part of the OS encourages antitrust zealots like Vestegier to force Apple to give it away for free to third party developers who already enjoy making $ billions off of the Apple ecosystem for free. Separating advanced features of Apple Intelligence out of the OS and as an optional add-on allows Apple to charge these rich freeloader developers without violating the DMA in EU or similar potential actions in other countries.

blastdoor 3564 comments · 15 Years

About 4 months ago

I think it is highly likely that Apple will charge for premium apple intelligence services. If nothing else, they could charge developers or other pro users for training models on ACDC.

Many people think Apple can’t possibly compete with Nvidia but it’s actually Nvidia that can’t possibly compete with Apple. Nvidia just looks impressive because their main competitors have been AMD and Intel. Apple has the ability to build and optimize a full stack solution like nobody else. When Apple deploys those capabilities in the model training space they will blow away the competition. People will be delighted to pay Apple to train models on ACDC.

Another reason I think Apple will charge for AI services is that it’s part of the strategy to become less dependent on China. The more of apples revenue that comes from services, the smaller the disruption if Xi does something stupid. Making their products last as long as possible also helps with that strategy.

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