OpenAI is so frustrated with Apple over its ChatGPT integration that failed to deliver subscribers and popularity, it expects the company is now actively exploring legal action against the iPhone maker. As reported by Bloomberg News on Thursdayciting people familiar with the matter.
According to Bloomberg, OpenAI has enlisted an outside law firm to work through its options, which could include sending Apple a formal notice of breach of contract without necessarily escalating to a full-fledged lawsuit (at least not right away). Any legal move will likely have to wait until after the conclusion of OpenAI’s ongoing trial with Elon Musk.
However, it serves as a reminder of what a difficult partner Apple can be for major software companies. The iPhone is a very attractive platform for growth, but it is entirely controlled by Apple — and the companies that make it are merely guests. From Google to Adobe, there’s a long history of Apple showing guests the door when they appear to be feeling too comfortable.
TechCrunch has reached out to both OpenAI and Apple for comment.
The OpenAI partnership, announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2024, brings ChatGPT into Apple’s operating systems as an option within Siri and as part of the iPhone’s Visual Intelligence feature (allowing users to use their camera to analyze their surroundings and send images to ChatGPT with relevant questions).
OpenAI, along with industry observers, has predicted that the deal could ultimately turn billions of dollars in new subscriptions and give the company prime real estate across one of the world’s most widely used mobile ecosystems. Instead, Bloomberg reported that OpenAI has become increasingly aggravated, complaining that the integration is buried, its features are hard to find, and that revenue from the link is nowhere near what it expected. “They basically said, ‘OpenAI needs to take a leap of faith and trust us,’” an OpenAI executive told Bloomberg. “It didn’t go well.”
Apple, for its part, has its own grievances, including concerns about OpenAI’s privacy standards and, according to Bloomberg, unease about pushing OpenAI into devices, an effort led by former Apple executives including former design chief Jony Ive.
Either way, OpenAI isn’t the first Apple partner to regret hitching its wagon to the company. Apple has a long history of embracing partners and then alienating them. The most famous case is Google Maps, which was one of the main features of the original iPhone. It was so central to the device’s appeal that its removal in 2012 — and its replacement with the significantly lower-quality Apple Maps product — became one of the biggest tech failures of the decade, prompting CEO Tim Cook to make a rare public apology. Friction between the two companies had been simmering for years at that point, thanks to Google’s Android phone being introduced a year after the iPhone debuted in 2007; After Eric Schmidt, then Google’s CEO, stepped down from Apple’s board of directors in 2009, that competition intensified.
Adobe has some scar tissue too. Steve Jobs refused to support Flash on iPhone and iPad, and published his famous message Open letter in 2010 explaining why and effectively eliminating the technology. Flash never regained its footing on mobile.
Then there’s Spotify, which spent years arguing that Apple leveraged its control of the App Store to hurt rival music streaming services after launching Apple Music in 2015. The European Commission agreed to fine Apple nearly €1.8 billion in March 2024.
Sometimes these differences can be overcome in the name of commercial interests. Google is now an AI infrastructure partner for Apple, having struck a multi-year deal in January to power next-generation Apple Intelligence with Gemini models. Apple pays Google approximately $1 billion annually.
Meanwhile, OpenAI has had its share of tense relationships recently. Elon Musk’s lawsuit against the company — which accuses OpenAI of abandoning its founding nonprofit mission and acting in bad faith — is currently on trial.
The company has also reportedly moved past tensions with Microsoft, its largest backer and infrastructure partner, as it seeks greater independence ahead of its IPO ambitions.
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