OpenAI prepares to take legal action against Apple due to ‘strained’ relationship with iPhone maker, says BloombergIt’s Mark Gurman.
The two companies entered into a partnership in 2024 that saw ChatGPT integrated into features such as Siri and Image Playground on iOS, iPadOS and macOS. iPhone users can also subscribe to ChatGPT directly through the Settings app, with Apple taking a cut of the revenue. Ultimately, however, the report says OpenAI expects ChatGPT to be more deeply integrated into other Apple apps and have a more prominent location within Siri.
OpenAI executives also believe that Apple has not sufficiently announced the integration, resulting in fewer customers knowing about it.
OpenAI initially thought the deal could generate billions of dollars a year in subscription revenue, but that “is far from being realized.” This expectation appears to have been made by Apple, which reportedly called the deal a comparable opportunity to its multibillion-dollar deal with Google for search in Safari.
Apple’s culture of secrecy reportedly meant that OpenAI did not know exactly how ChatGPT would be integrated into iPhone, iPad and Mac.
“They basically said, ‘OpenAI needs to take a leap of faith and trust us,'” said an anonymous OpenAI executive. Bloomberg. They called the deal a “failure.”
“We did everything from a product perspective,” the executive said. “They didn’t, and worse, they didn’t even make an honest effort.”
Siri users must use the word “ChatGPT” when speaking or typing a command in order to get results from OpenAI’s chatbot. ChatGPT responses displayed in the Siri interface also contain limited information compared to the ChatGPT app.
OpenAI’s attempts to renegotiate the deal have apparently stalled.
Due to these shortcomings, OpenAI is considering taking legal action against Apple, according to the report. OpenAI is reportedly considering a range of options, including sending Apple a letter alleging breach of contract, without necessarily taking full legal action. However, OpenAI still hopes to resolve the issues outside of court.
iOS 27 is expected to leverage other chatbots like Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude, but that’s apparently not one of OpenAI’s complaints, as its partnership with Apple was never meant to be exclusive. In fact, iOS 27’s rumored Siri app with an “Extensions” feature for other chatbots might actually promote ChatGPT better.
For now, however, it appears that OpenAI feels like it’s been given the short end of the stick.