OpenAI confirmed to power generative AI features on iOS 18, Google still in the reckoning: Report

Apple seems to finally decided on using OpenAI’s technology for powering AI features in iOS 18, it’s software update for iPhones which will be unveiled at the WWDC 2024 event next month. The news has been confirmed via a new report by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurnman, who states that the deal with OpenAI could be a major component of WWDC.

The Bloomberg report also states that Apple is still working on hashing out a deal with Google in order to provide Gemini as an alternative. Notably, Apple’s massive user base will make it one of the biggest players in AI when the new features are rolled out with iOS 18.

Moreover, the move to stick with OpenAI as a partner for iOS 18’s AI features is likely to provide an edge to the company compared to Samsung, which relies solely on Google’s Gemini AI for powering some advanced features on its Galaxy S24 lineup.

Gurnman says the new features could be marketed as a preview in developer beta version of iOS 18 at first and the company may launch a stable version of these features with iPhone 16 in September.

How will Apple’s AI features be different from Samsung, Google?

Apple is likely to introduce a number of AI features at the WWDC event in June including a feature for transcribing memos, retouch photos, making search faster and upgrades to Siri.

Apart from iOS 18, Apple is likely to bring AI features to macOS and iPadOS, all of whom will have a software for determining whether a particular task should be run on the device or via the cloud, Gurnman reported.

Using ‘on-device’ AI has some obvious advantages, including improved privacy, the ability to run offline or in places with poor internet connectivity, and reduced response time. However, on-device large language models (LLMs) are not backed by huge servers with billions of parameters (which power most commercial chatbots such as ChatGPT or Gemini) and as a result are not as powerful or knowledgeable in many cases.

With Apple may also be using a Cloud-based LLM for its iOS 18 AI features, the company may have a hard time in maintaining its privacy focused image. Gurnman states that in order to mitigate this issue Apple will likely stress that it won’t be building profiles of users like Google or Meta.