Top rivals Apple and Meta reportedly discussing AI partnership for iOS 18

Apple and Meta (née Facebook) have never been the best of friends, and that relationship has only deteriorated in recent years as the tech giants clash over issues of privacy, the App Store and much more. Likewise, respective CEOs Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg have never spoken too kindly about each other in interviews over the years.

But the AI ​​boom has given rise to some unlikely partnerships. And it looks like Apple and Meta can agree on this specific thing…

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple and Meta have discussed a partnership that would see Meta AI models integrated into iOS 18 for Apple Intelligence.

This integration would likely be similar to the deal Apple has with ChatGPT, which is currently Apple Intelligence’s only third-party partner. While Apple’s on-device and cloud models power most of Apple Intelligence’s functionality, the company is ready to help users’ requests for “knowledge of the world” be moved to an intelligence model. Third-party AI.

For example, with iOS 18 and Apple Intelligence enabled, if you ask Siri a question like “how to create a five-course meal with different tastes,” Siri will ask the user if they would like to send that request to ChatGPT instead .

If permission is granted, OpenAI’s ChatGPT model will process the request and the response will appear inline in the Siri view. ChatGPT will also be available through the Apple Intelligence Writing Tools panel, helping users who want to generate pages of text or photorealistic images.

Under the terms of the agreement, ChatGPT is not allowed to collect user data and must delete any information once requests are processed. The integration is also available for free for users, using ChatGPT-4o as the backend. Users can optionally log in with their ChatGPT account to access ChatGPT Plus features.

Apple has publicly stated that it is looking to offer a range of models, so ChatGPT won’t be the only one eventually. It appears that Meta AI could eventually be in the mix as well, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal. Apple is also in talks with Google Gemini, Perplexity, Anthropic and others.

Apple Intelligence will be available later this year as part of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia updates. It will be available first in US English, for iPhone 15 Pro and iPad and Mac models equipped with the M1 chip or later. Support for additional languages ​​and regions will be rolled out gradually over time.