Apple’s AI chatbot won’t be enabled unless you want it

With just a few days until Apple unveils its newest AI-infused operating system updates, a new report from Bloomberg sheds some light on the partnership Apple has struck with OpenAI—and how Apple plans on safeguarding users.

Most notably, the AI features coming to the iPhone are described as an “opt-in service,” meaning users will be prompted to turn it on during setup, much like the “Improve Siri and Dictation” screen. According to Mark Gurman, “wary customers could easily steer clear of them if they’d prefer,” but will also let Apple limit the possibility of “reputational damage from a rogue chatbot.”

Gurman says Apple “determined early on that OpenAI and Google were far ahead in chatbots and on-the-fly assistance” though the company is still working on its own competitor to ChatGPT using its in-house Ajax framework.

In the meantime, Gurman says Apple “may offer a number of third-party chatbots, but it’s negotiating the deals on a case-by-case basis, according to the people with knowledge of the situation,” though it “believes that OpenAI’s technology is the best available on the market.” For now, it sounds like Siri and this new chatbot will be separate offerings, though it remains to be seen how it will all work.

The report claims Apple will use its own AI “to power features like voice memo transcriptions and photo editing, as well as new search capabilities in the Safari web browser and auto-replies in apps like Messages.” Based on the report, it’s likely that these features get prominence over the OpenAI-powered chatbot.

Apple will unveil its new AI feature in iOS 18 and macOS 15 during its WWDC keynote on Monday at 10 a.m. 

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