Charles Martin
Apple is said to have dropped out of a new funding round for OpenAI at the last minute, but this will have no impact on its plans to integrate optional ChatGPT queries into Apple Intelligence.
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is closing a funding round that is expected to raise a $6.5 billion, that was previously expected to be funded in part by Apple. Other tech giants Microsoft and Nvidia are among those expected to participate in the new funding drive. Microsoft is expected to add another $1 billion to the $13 billion it has already invested.
The report isn't clear as to why Apple isn't investing into the funding round.
While rare, it's not unheard of for Apple to invest in other tech firms and promising startups. The company set up a $430 billion Advanced Manufacturing Fund to invest in companies that help provide it with new technology, such as optical technology firm II-VI.
Another example of this is Finisar, a US-based company that provides some of the technology behind FaceID and Portrait Mode that Apple later acquired outright. Apple has also invested in Globalstar, which provides the infrastructure that makes the Emergency SOS via satellite possible.
Changes at OpenAI
The pullout by Apple could be related to the recent move by OpenAI to abandon its nonprofit status and become a for-profit company. The changeover will be complicated, and if OpenAI doesn't complete the transition within two years, investors in the current round may ask to have their investment money returned.
Apple's reported withdrawal from the funding round is not expected to have any effect on the company's current relationship with OpenAI. ChatGPT will continue to be an optional feature in Apple Intelligence as it rolls out across late 2024 and early 2025.
As Apple has noted, users will have the option of having queries answered by ChatGPT if the nature of the request is beyond Siri's knowledge base. The integration will allow users to access ChatGPT knowledge without having to create an account, though existing subscribers can integrate their paid features within those experiences.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
15 Comments
No surprise there. Apple already invested a veritable fortune on Apple Car. Then decided that it was not a profitable venture and pulled out. Look at what happened next: the Chinese flooded the market with EVs: Haval, BYD and whatever else brands. That made the European, Japanese and American EV car markers pull back their plans to release an EV. Instead they are focusing their manufacturing on Hybrids and PHEVs. Why? Main reason: buyers are reluctant to purchase an EV due to range anxiety - insufficient charging infrastructure. The EV infrastructure has to come up to snuff to match the ICE. It has taken the latter 100 years to have servos at nearly every corner. You drive up, gas up and 10 minutes later you are on your merry way. With an EV, even if you can find a charging station you are going to have to wait in the queue. Next you will need to cool your heels for at least an hour while your battery is charging. The EV thing is one prime example of putting the cart before the horse.
Then Apple poured billions into a mixed reality headset that has no mass market appeal. Whoops. It's not even a price issue. The Apple Vision Pro is the best out there but like the WSJ said, it's a beautiful device but no one wants it.
And the next crazy thing is AI. Like the Y2K hysteria. Much ado about nothing. Airplane hangers full of old discarded data being mined by algorithms to generate useful data. Haven't we done this nonsense before under a different name: Data Warehousing?
To have true AI you will need to mine realtime data not old junk.
Apple wisely decided that wasted billions on Apple Car and Vision Pro was enough of Google Moon Shots. Apple is focused on making money. Lots of it. So the next Apple venture will be on a money making potential not another moon shot.
As I've mentioned under other articles in the past, my experience with ChatGPT4o isn't that great. I want like to use it to check multiple online sources quickly, in the hope it can Google faster than I can on my own. And it is fast. But the problem is, it lies a lot. So I always ask it for sources. Then it gives me stupid links that when clicked on, open nothing. So I have to then as it for plain text URLs. It complies, but none of them ever work. EVER! They lead to the expected domain, but they always result a 404 file not found. ALWAYS! I then complain to ChatGPT saying it needs to read the articles it links for me to ensure the article truly exists and exists at the plain text URL it will give to me. It apologizes and seemingly complies, but it continues to give me more bogus URLs. I have repeated that cycle multiple times in a row, until my free sessions with GPT4o expires. It never learns from its mistakes. It never gets it right. I've been using it for months, and it hasn't improved at all in that regard. So I mostly find it useless. And this experience remains valid even if some GPT lover comes along a raves about how well it summarizes text. Fine and well, but it still lies and gives bogus URLs to its source info.
This is why I won't shed many tears when and if OpenAI finally goes under. There was so much promise with their creation. But they've not done anything I can see to show it's worthy of sticking around when the funds run dry. Let a better company come along and do an actual good job on AI for once. Whether that can be Apple or not is yet to be seen. Apple did come out with Apple Maps despite the global love for Google Maps, so you never know. They may release their own ChatGPT style AI chatbot one day, with true intelligence that doesn't lie and gives working URLs.
It’s getting better every day through iteration and hard work by a lot of people, most people however seem to be disinterested when they don’t get an instantaneous answer or solution most seem to want the lottery, bitcoin, crypto solution it must be now it must be instantaneous or it’s no good. Eyes usually glaze over when you say it’s gonna take time and the only way to get there (personal finance) is through compounding your investment over a period of time. AI is currently in the same boat.
Maybe Apple poached enough OpenAI engineers to the point they don’t need waste anymore money on OpenAI.