According to a Bloomberg report, Apple declined an AI partnership with Meta, Facebook’s parent company, due to privacy concerns. Despite a brief discussion in March, the talks did not advance, and Apple has no plans to integrate Meta’s large language model (LLM) into iOS.
Credits: Bloomberg
Over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple and Meta were in active discussions about integrating Facebook’s LLM, Llama, into iOS 18 as part of Apple Intelligence. The report suggested these discussions were ongoing and not yet finalized. However, Bloomberg’s follow-up indicates that Apple never seriously considered the partnership.
Preliminary talks occurred concurrently with Apple’s discussions with OpenAI and Google’s parent company, Alphabet. Apple decided not to pursue a more formal discussion with Meta due to concerns over the company’s privacy practices, which Apple deemed insufficiently stringent.
Ultimately, Apple signed a deal with OpenAI, leading to the integration of ChatGPT into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia. Users can opt into ChatGPT, with Siri capable of handing off some requests to the more advanced AI model. Additionally, Apple is working on a deal with Google to integrate Gemini into its operating systems and is in talks with the AI company Anthropic.
At WWDC, Apple’s software engineering chief, Craig Federighi, stated that Apple aims to provide users with a choice between different AI models, with plans to establish deals with multiple providers.