Apple to Gain OpenAI Board Seat, Bring ChatGPT to iOS 18

Apple’s new relationship with OpenAI lets Apple watch OpenAI board meetings, it also gives OpenAI access to millions of iPhone users for free, which could cause problems with Microsoft’s big investments in OpenAI.

At its WWDC 2024 event earlier this year, Apple stated that it would be working with OpenAI. It turned out that Apple would not be paying OpenAI to use its technology in iOS 18. The new relationship could give OpenAI access to millions of iPhone users.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurnman reported that as part of the deal Apple made with the company run by Sam Altman, Apple will also have a role as an observer at OpenAI.

According to the report, Phil Schiller, who is currently in charge of Apple’s App Store and used to be in charge of marketing, has been chosen to be a board observer. As an observer, Schiller would be able to attend OpenAI board meetings but would not be able to vote on board decisions.

Since 2020, Schiller has been working as a “Apple Fellow” instead of being Apple’s marketing chief. The expert is in charge of both the App Store and Apple’s events for launching new products. Aside from his job at Apple, Schiller is also a member at Illumina Inc., a company that makes medical technology.

Apple has had a mixed history with Microsoft, and the board observer role will put it in the same situation. Aside from being fierce rivals in the PC market, Microsoft, which is run by Satya Nadella, has also offered big bucks to make Bing the preferred search engine on iPhones in the past.

According to Gurnman, adding Apple to the OpenAI board could be a problem if these meetings are used to talk about AI projects between Microsoft and OpenAI. He says that board members usually agree to step down and leave meetings when sensitive topics are being talked about. Microsoft has significantly invested approximately $13 billion in OpenAI and also permits the AI company to use a lot of its cloud and computing resources in order to run ChatGPT and other AI technologies.