OpenAI is gearing up for legal action against Apple as the collaboration between ChatGPT and Siri falls apart.

      **TL;DR** OpenAI is considering potential legal action against Apple regarding their two-year-old ChatGPT-Siri collaboration, which OpenAI claims has not generated the anticipated subscription revenue. Lawyers for OpenAI are consulting with an external firm on options, which may include sending a breach-of-contract notice. OpenAI expected the partnership to yield billions annually; however, Apple’s implementation of ChatGPT has been obstructive, leading users to prefer the standalone app. Meanwhile, Apple is opening iOS 27 to competing AI models (Claude, Gemini), has signed a $1 billion yearly deal with Google for Siri's core AI, and settled a $250 million class action lawsuit over misleading AI features. OpenAI's acquisition of Jony Ive's device startup introduces a hardware rivalry to the existing legal tensions.

      OpenAI's partnership with Apple, which was announced with much excitement in June 2024, is deteriorating. According to Bloomberg sources, OpenAI's legal team is exploring options, potentially including a formal breach-of-contract notice. No lawsuit has been initiated yet, and OpenAI still hopes to resolve the issue amicably. However, the company believes that Apple has not adhered to the terms of a deal that was intended to incorporate ChatGPT as a default feature within a highly valuable consumer ecosystem.

      The main complaint is about distribution. OpenAI anticipated that integrating ChatGPT into Siri, Writing Tools, and Image Playground would drive many iPhone users toward paid subscriptions, possibly generating billions annually. Instead, Apple's implementation has complicated access, requiring users to specifically mention "ChatGPT" to engage OpenAI's models, with responses given in limited windows. User studies indicate that Apple customers largely prefer the standalone ChatGPT app.

      **What went wrong**

      The deal was established at a time when Apple was eager to catch up in the generative AI space, granting iPhone users access to ChatGPT results via Siri, enabling text generation, image analysis with Visual Intelligence, and creating images in Image Playground. Apple would take a share of the subscription revenue from these features. OpenAI expected to gain significant visibility within an ecosystem of over a billion active devices.

      However, this anticipated visibility did not materialize. An anonymous OpenAI executive informed Bloomberg that Apple had not genuinely promoted the integration. OpenAI now feels that the implementation has negatively impacted its brand, with the limited responses creating a perception of lower capability compared to the full ChatGPT experience.

      During initial discussions in 2024, Apple compared the opportunity to its lucrative search deal with Google in Safari, which generates billions for both parties. However, this analogy has proven misguided. The same executive noted that OpenAI was urged to place its trust in Apple, and the result has been disappointing.

      **A relationship under pressure from all sides**

      The discord with Apple is occurring alongside OpenAI's ongoing legal battle with Elon Musk regarding its transition from a nonprofit to a for-profit organization, which could involve damages of up to $150 billion. OpenAI recently revised its exclusive agreement with Microsoft, limiting revenue-sharing to $38 billion until 2030 and transitioning to a non-exclusive licensing structure that allows it to serve clients on any cloud platform. At the same time, Amazon has increased its investment in Anthropic by an additional $5 billion.

      Apple has its own concerns, particularly regarding OpenAI's privacy practices. Furthermore, OpenAI's $6.5 billion acquisition of io, a startup co-founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, poses a direct competitive challenge. The company, now operated by former Apple executives Tang Tan and Evans Hankey, is working on an alternative to the iPhone. Apple executives have reportedly expressed frustration over OpenAI recruiting Apple hardware engineers by offering stock packages significantly more lucrative than Apple’s.

      According to Bloomberg's sources, any legal action from OpenAI is unlikely before the conclusion of the Musk trial, suggesting that OpenAI is carefully managing its legal exposure to avoid a two-front dispute.

      **Apple's shift away from OpenAI**

      The partnership's decline coincides with Apple’s intent to reduce OpenAI’s role in its software. iOS 27, set to be revealed at the Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8, will introduce a system called Extensions that allows users to install competing AI chatbots from the App Store and direct Siri queries, text tasks, and image generation through the chosen model. Apple is testing integrations with both Anthropic's Claude and Google's Gemini.

      Separately, Apple secured a deal late last year to utilize Google’s Gemini models as the basis for its own AI capabilities, committing around $1 billion annually for a tailored 1.2-trillion-parameter model to enhance Siri. OpenAI was considered for a deeper integration but opted not to participate, feeling dissatisfied with the initial relationship.

      An OpenAI executive explained to Bloomberg that the adoption of alternative providers by Apple is not driving the legal conflict because the partnership was never intended to be exclusive. The new Extensions system could even enhance ChatGPT's visibility through a