Apple Will Reportedly Allow Third-Party Models to Power Apple Intelligence Features

Apple’s upcoming ’27 updates for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS may introduce big changes to how Apple Intelligence features work on eligible iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported yesterday that Apple will allow users to choose third-party AI models from Google, Anthropic, and other companies to power built-in AI features such as text and image generation.

As of today, Apple Intelligence features on supported devices rely on the company’s in-house models. However, iPhone, iPad, and Mac users can also allow Apple Intelligence to work with ChatGPT to get more answers from Siri, compose text with the built-in Writing Tools, or use new styles in Apple’s Image Playground app. The process requires users to set up the ChatGPT extension on their devices, and connecting a free or paid ChatGPT account is also possible (but not required).

What Gurman described yesterday looks like a new Extensions system for integrating AI apps from the App Store with Apple Intelligence. “Extensions allow you to access generative AI capabilities from installed apps on demand, through Apple Intelligence features such as Siri, Writing Tools, Image Playground and more,” a message shown in test versions of the software seen by Gurman reads.

“So far, Apple has been testing integrations internally with at least Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Anthropic PBC,” Gurman said yesterday, citing two people with knowledge of the matter. Apple has already teamed up with Google to use the company’s AI models to improve its Siri assistant, which may also get the ability to hand off requests to other chatbots than ChatGPT.

Apple is clearly lagging behind competitors in the AI space, and opening up Siri and Apple Intelligence to other AI models would be a great way to give users more choice. According to Gurman, Apple may introduce a new section in the App Store to highlight AI apps compatible with this new Extensions system. The company also plans to tell users who choose to use third-party models for Apple Intelligence features that it isn’t responsible for the content created by these models.