Report: OpenAI Wants to Break Up With Apple Over Unfruitful Siri Integration

OpenAI is reportedly disappointed about its partnership with Apple, which led to the integration of ChatGPT into Apple’s Siri, Writing Tools, and Visual Intelligence features. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is reporting that OpenAI is considering legal action against Apple to rework or break up the partnership, which failed to deliver a new revenue stream for the AI startup.

As of today, owners of iPhones, iPads, and Macs that support Apple Intelligence can enable a ChatGPT extension in Settings that makes the chatbot accessible without having to install the ChatGPT app. With the extension turned on, Siri can tap into ChatGPT to provide more in-depth answers, but the chatbot can also be used to create text or images via Apple’s Writing Tools and Image Playground features. ChatGPT can also provide more information about nearby places when using Visual Intelligence in the iPhone Camera app.

This ChatGPT integration on Apple devices works without an OpenAI account, but user can still log in to their accounts if they want to access paid features. According to Bloomberg, OpenAI expected to benefit financially from this integration into Apple’s platforms, but that apparently didn’t happen. An unnamed OpenAI exec who spoke to the publication also alleged that Apple didn’t put much effort into this ChatGPT integration.

“We have done everything from a product perspective,” said an OpenAI executive who asked not to be identified. “They have not, and worse, they haven’t even made an honest effort.”

“When we heard about this opportunity, it sounded amazing: being able to acquire a giant number of customers and have distribution in such a big mobile ecosystem,” the OpenAI executive also said. “They basically said, ‘OpenAI needs to take a leap of faith and trust us,’” the person continued, adding that the partnership ultimately didn’t move the needle for OpenAI.

Bloomberg reports that OpenAI hired an outside legal firm to determine the best way to alter or end that partnership with Apple. OpenAI may not go as far as suing Apple, however. According to Bloomberg’s sources, one of the options that’s being considered is sending Apple a notice alleging breach of contract.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is currently embroiled in a high-profile legal battle with Elon Musk, the former co-founder of the AI startup, who accused Altman of “stealing a charity.” Obviously, it may not be in OpenAI’s best interest to start another legal war with Apple, one of the richest companies in the world.

While the current ChatGPT integration into Apple Intelligence isn’t exactly seamless (you have to manually invoke ChatGPT to use it), Apple is reportedly planning to allow third-party models to power Apple Intelligence features on iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27. Gurman previously reported that Apple is currently testing integrations with both Anthropic’s Claude and Google Gemini, but this new open system may eventually benefit OpenAI as well.