Arch-rivals Apple and Meta reportedly discuss AI partnership for iOS 18 – 9to5Mac

Apple and Meta (nee Facebook) have never been the best of friends, and that relationship has only soured in recent years as the tech giants clash on issues of privacy, app store policy, and much more. Respective CEOs Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg have similarly never talked too kindly about each other, in interviews over the years.

But the AI boom has meant some unlikely partnerships have bloomed. And it seems that Apple and Meta may be able to come to terms on this one specific thing …

The Wall Street Journal is reporting 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 struck with ChatGPT, which is currently the only third-party partner for Apple Intelligence. While Apple’s own on-device and cloud models power most Apple Intelligence functionality, the company is willing to help user requests about ‘world knowledge’ be transferred to a third party AI model.

For instance, with iOS 18 and Apple Intelligence enabled, if you ask Siri a question like “how to create a five course meal featuring 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 answer will appear inline in the Siri view. ChatGPT will also be available through Apple Intelligence Writing Tools panel, helping users want to generate pages of text or photorealistic imagery.

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

Apple has publicly said that it is looking to offer a range of models, so ChatGPT won’t be the only one eventually. It seems that Meta AI could eventually also be in the mix, based on the Wall Street Journal’s reporting. Apple has also been in talks with Google Gemini, Perplexity, Anthropic and others.

Apple Intelligence will be available later this year as part of the 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 with the M1 chip or later. Support for additional languages and regions will roll out gradually over time.