As OpenAI nears the end of a trial to decide a multibillion-dollar lawsuit filed against it by Elon Musk, one its founders, the artificial intelligence company is mulling another legal battle.
OpenAI is considering taking legal action against Apple over its integration of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot in its devices, a person familiar with the company’s decision-making said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The companies struck a deal two years ago as part of Apple’s promised overhaul of artificial intelligence products like its personal assistant, Siri. ChatGPT would support some of those A.I. features by, for example, answering more complex questions on behalf of Siri.
Now, OpenAI is weighing legal action such as sending Apple a notice claiming breach of contract, the person said.
Last year, Apple had problems with its A.I. upgrades and delayed the release of an improved Siri. Since then, the iPhone maker has largely remained on the sidelines of A.I., even as other technology giants spend hundreds of billions of dollars building A.I. models and data centers and as start-ups push the envelope on the technology.
Apple declined to comment. Bloomberg reported earlier on OpenAI’s considering legal action.
In recent months, OpenAI has tried to rework its deal with Apple, the person said. OpenAI had expected the deal to encourage people to subscribe to ChatGPT and Apple to make the chatbot prominent within Siri. Instead, OpenAI has been disappointed by how Apple has integrated ChatGPT, and complained that the option to use the chatbot with Siri was difficult for some people to find.
The consideration of legal action could be a bargaining chip as Apple takes steps to also work with OpenAI’s competitors in the fast-growing A.I. market. In January, Apple said it would use Google’s Gemini A.I. models and cloud computing services to power its A.I. products, including Siri.
Kalley Huang is a Times reporter in San Francisco, covering Apple and the technology industry.
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