Summary
- Apple may be close to a deal with OpenAI for the use of AI services in iOS 18, while discussions with Google are reportedly ongoing.
- Google Gemini is already available on Apple iPhones through the Google app, so users are already familiar with its experience.
- OpenAI and Google could both power iOS 18’s AI capabilities in some form, with full details expected at Apple’s WWDC event in June.
In March, we learned that Apple was in talks with Google to use the Gemini AI chatbot on the upcoming iPhone operating system (iOS 18). At the same time, we learned that OpenAI was also in contention to provide some of its services on Apple’s future devices. A Bloomberg report over the weekend suggests that OpenAI may be close to a deal with Apple, while the door may still be ajar for Google Gemini.
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According to anonymous sources cited by Bloomberg, Apple and OpenAI are “finalizing terms for a pact.” While this would generally suggest that Google has lost the race to OpenAI, that doesn’t appear to be the case, not yet anyway. The publication adds that Google and Apple are still in discussions about using the Gemini chatbot in iOS 18, but the two companies aren’t close to reaching an agreement.
It’s no secret at this point that Apple has missed the boat on AI, which means it has no option but to partner with an established name like Google or OpenAI to provide AI experiences to iPhone users. Gemini has already made its way to iPhones via the Google app, while Android has also taken the big step of trying to replace Assistant with Gemini, but with little success due to some missing features.
There could be a world where both OpenAI and Google power a portion of iOS 18’s generative AI capabilities. Neither of the three companies is currently willing to disclose anything publicly, but we should have all the details during next month’s Apple WWDC event (June 10-14).
OpenAI event coming up this Monday
An earlier report said that OpenAI’s event on May 13 could potentially see the arrival of a Google Search competitor. CEO Sam Altman has since refuted these claims. He wrote on X/Twitter over the weekend saying there would be no announcements regarding GPT-5 or a search engine.
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But Altman couldn’t resist hyping the event after all, saying that the team had been working hard on some “new stuff” and that it “feels like magic.” Meanwhile, Google I/O begins just a day later, on the 14th of May. It could be a relatively dull affair this year as far as hardware announcements are concerned, but we’ll likely get to hear a lot about Gemini’s future during this dev-focused event.
